Unspoken Words
by Leebot
Summary: As Asami struggles to find the right words to describe her feelings for Korra, a strange encounter in the spirit world strips the ability to speak from her. What's causing her ailment, what can she and Korra do to fix it, and will she ever be able to confess her true feelings to her friend? - A novel-length, epic story, updated weekly on Tuesdays.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** Happy canon confirmation everyone! Oh, and Christmas. That too.

Anyway, this fic is a direct follow up to my previous fic, "In Her Eyes." The first couple sections here are lifted straight from that, to help set the scene.

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book One:** Command

**Prologue**

**Teaser:** How much truly needs to be said?

* * *

><p><em>The Korra from a year ago would certainly be asking why right now, as I enter the new spirit portal with Asami. Why, when I've decided that now is the time to look to the future, do I find myself looking into her eyes? And why do I find her looking back into mine? But no, those aren't the questions I should be asking. I smile at Asami, holding her hand in mine as we stand before the portal. What do I learn from this?<em>

_A warmth slowly fills my heart as the answer comes to me. A woman who sometimes seemed to know me better than I know myself. My closest friend. The only one I could trust when I was at my lowest. The one I wanted to spend time with when things settled down._

_From my subconscious actions as we approached the portal, my body had made it clear that it already knew the answer. My mind had only now caught up._

_It was simple. I saw my future in her eyes._

* * *

><p><em>As we prepared for our vacation in the spirit world, Korra told me that despite the current ruins of Republic City, she felt hopeful for the future of it. "I do too," I said as we headed toward the spirit portal. "In fact, I think it's the perfect time to start looking toward the future."<em>

_It was as these words left my mouth that my hand reached out to take Korra's. I may not have had the words for it at the time, but I knew. As we reached the portal, I turned to face her, and she to me. This was my future._

_Looking into Korra's eyes, I was certain. This was where my story would truly begin._

* * *

><p>A golden glow surrounded Asami and Korra as the spirit portal took them away from the ruins of Republic City. Asami knew she should probably be focusing on the world around them slowly fading into gold, or perhaps on the shifting sounds. She was the one who'd requested this specific journey, after all. But at this moment, the only part of the world she cared about was the one part that wasn't fading away: the Avatar Korra.<p>

Their eyes had met a few seconds ago, and their hands had joined a few seconds before that. Asami wasn't quite sure who'd made the first move; both of those events had simply seemed to happen, as if it was only natural. No words had needed to be spoken between them.

Asami's gaze never left Korra's face, even as the background shifted from gold to green

and slowly began to take shape. How long had it been since she'd felt like this? It was over four years ago now, in the brief period when things were going well between her and Mako. Though even then, it wasn't quite the same. Back then there had been that new relationship thrill, but it hadn't been built on the foundation of a solid friendship like her relationship with Korra now.

Asami knew Korra far better now than she'd known Mako when they were dating. For that matter, she knew Korra better now than she knew Mako now. She'd seen Korra when she was broken down after her fight with Zaheer, and helped her through the slow, painful recovery. Korra in turn was the one Asami had turned to to help her handle the death of her father.

Already, their relationship was the most emotionally intimate one Asami had ever been in, and they hadn't even spoken a word about its exact nature to each other. They'd have to do that sooner or later. The problem was: What were the right words? What could possibly encompass all that this relationship meant to Asami? She'd have to give it some time, and make sure her confession was just right. But until then, perhaps words weren't necessary.

* * *

><p>Korra could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest. Her heart rate had picked up as soon as she'd decided on the meaning of her shared gaze with Asami. It felt so… freeing. Freeing in that she'd finally admitted it to herself, but also in that the world had finally settled down to the point where she was actually free to think about relationships again without worrying about it getting in the way of her duties as the Avatar.<p>

She was officially on vacation from her duties, and she was officially falling for Asami Sato. And maybe, just maybe, Asami was falling for her as well. Well, more than maybe. She'd turned to gaze at Korra at just the same time, and there was a definite affection there. Was it the same, though? Asami had made all the same motions Korra had, but did that necessarily mean she was in the same place?

Probably. Everything felt right about this. There was no reason to believe Asami was on a different page than Korra was, and plenty of reasons to believe she was thinking the same things. So Korra should simply blurt things out and get it over with. She should say something about this. Anything, really, before they were fully in the spirit world and the moment faded.

"Asami…" Korra said. Her heart beat seemed to double in pace as she began to speak. Her gaze dropped an inch, as she found herself not quite able to meet Asami's eyes right now. She still hadn't quite figured out what she was going to say, so she simply forced herself to get out something, anything. "I… I mean, you and I, we're…? You know, um..."

"Korra," Asami said. She gave Korra's hand a brief squeeze within her own. Korra looked back up into Asami's eyes, relaxing just a bit. "It's all right. You don't need to say anything right now."

Korra nodded slowly. Right. Asami knew. Words weren't necessary. They'd figure this out. Korra smiled at her… girlfriend? Date? Asami. She smiled at Asami, covering up her momentary uncertainty as she shifted to matters she knew much better. "Well, Asami, welcome to the spirit world."

* * *

><p>Sheng heard a sudden explosion of words from the new portal, and he sensed the presence of the Avatar along with it. He found himself envying humans, who could put their hands to their ears to block out unwanted sounds. In his case, this simply wasn't an option. He could no more stop hearing than a human could stop breathing. It was his life, his nature, his essence. But right now it was ruining his tea.<p>

"My apologies, young man," Sheng said to the new spirit. "I will have to sample this tea of yours some other time. My duties require me now." He pressed his cane into the ground, slowly raising himself from his seat.

"Hah, 'young man'! Oh, I do like this place," the young spirit said. He waved a hand at Sheng. "Of course, go if you have to. I hope you'll come back soon, though. It's not often I get to serve tea to one of the old spirits, after all."

Sheng nodded his head at the young spirit. "I shall." Sheng's body unraveled, becoming one with the ground so that he might travel rapidly across the spirit world. He would have to have a word with this new Avatar about proper respect.


	2. Roots

**Author's Note:** Happy New Years all! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. For future chapters, I'll be posting as part of a Tuesday Fanfic event for the TLA community on Reddit. I'll continue posting chapters here; this just means that it'll affect the timing. So, you can expect the next chapter of this fic to be posted on Tuesday January 13th, and one chapter a week after that until I'm finished. (Assuming I don't fall behind, which I certainly don't plan to.)

Much thanks to RaijinTora for her proofreading and comments on this chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book One:** Command

**Chapter 1:** Roots

**Teaser:** A vision of the past, and a strange visitor.

* * *

><p>"Well, Asami, welcome to the spirit world," Korra said. She stepped back and turned away from Asami, holding her arm out and motioning to the area around them. Korra had previously described this part of the spirit world to her, and Asami had done as much research as she could on what was known about the spirit world, but nothing could truly prepare her for seeing it in person.<p>

Asami and Korra stood on a stretch of what seemed like black sand, with a field of magenta flowers extending in front of them. Just behind them was the other side of the spirit portal, which from this side appeared as a golden-green rotating orb, with a golden helix extending from it into the sky. "It's… so beautiful…" Asami said softly.

That part, at least, wasn't too different from the human world. But the rest of this world was where it truly became alien. There were trees nearby, but without a single leaf among them. They appeared twisted, and a few grew at odd angles to the ground. They all seemed to reach roughly the same height, after which point their branches stretched out horizontally rather than dare climb any higher vertically. Far off were mountains, which at least appeared to be the right shape. At a quick glance, they were the right color for snow-covered peaks, but only on a quick glance. They were all a solid pale blue, making them look more like shards of ice growing in the distance.

But none of that was what struck Asami as the strangest aspect of this place. It took her a while to put her finger on just what was so off-putting here, but at last she was able to do so. "But, um… where are the spirits?" she said, turning to Korra. On the other side of the portal, the region had been filled with spirits, as if they'd gather to watch Korra and Asami depart. If anything, there should have been more of them here.

"Hmm…" Korra said. She closed her eyes and took a few slow breaths. After a minute, she opened her eyes and said, "They're far away, but I do sense them. I don't think this is a place spirits usually come. And to be honest, I'm not sure if it'll be that easy to get to the rest of the spirit world from here. Perhaps this portal isn't as convenient as it seemed..."

Asami reached out and placed her hand on Korra's shoulder. "We're on vacation," she said. "Perhaps you can worry later about the implications for the world of where this portal leads. For now, I think it's perfect. It means we have some time to ourselves. Just the two of us."

"Um, right…" Korra said. Her eyes shot briefly to the hand on her shoulder, and then back to meet Asami's gaze. Her cheeks seemed to slowly fill with a light blush. "Well, um, maybe I can explain what I think I know about this place then," she said.

Asami nodded slowly. She couldn't help but notice the effect she was having on Korra right now, but she held herself back from grinning too much in response. She did, however, wait just a second longer than strictly necessary before she removed her hand from Korra's shoulder.

Korra coughed and turned away. "Okay," she said. She took a step toward one of the nearby trees as she began to speak. "Here in the spirit world, between the portals that connect to the north and south poles, there's this tree, called the 'Tree of Time.' It looks a lot like one of these trees, except it's a fair bit bigger, and there's a big hole in the side. It's where Vaatu was imprisoned since the previous Harmonic Convergence.

"That's not why the tree is important, though," Korra said. She turned back to Asami, though she kept walking toward the tree. Picking up on the hint, Asami began to follow her toward it. "The tree's roots run through the spirit world, and connect it with our world as well. It's also connected to the energy of the universe, and it's been around at least since the time of the first Avatar, if not far longer."

Asami nodded. "We'll certainly have to pay a visit to that tree at some point then," she said. "But are you saying you think these trees are related to it somehow?"

Korra began to shake her head, but then she stopped herself. "Well, not 'related.' I think they are it. Parts of it, that is. My best guess is, these are its roots, coming out the other side of the spirit world. And if I'm right, we should be able to sense something from them."

"The other side? As in, we're upside-down right now?" Asami said, taking a glance upward. There wasn't any easy way to orient herself here, so Korra could certainly have been right. It wasn't as if Asami knew what the spirit world looked like the right way up, after all.

"Well, maybe," Korra said. "This might also be a completely new part of the spirit world, created from the energy of the Kuvira's weapon's blast. The spirit world doesn't really have the same shape as our world, and I don't think its shape even has to make sense to us. Ah, but here." Korra paused in her step as she reached the tree. "If I'm right, we should sense something from this tree."

Korra held out her hand, palm upward. Asami glanced between Korra and the tree, wondering just what Korra might expect her to sense. In the end though, she trusted Korra, and so she placed her hand in her friend's. Korra brought their hands forward, slowly bringing Asami's hand to touch the trunk of the tree.

* * *

><p>"Father!" Asami called out as she ran into her father's office, barely able to contain her excitement. She placed the newspaper she was holding on his desk, and then a moment later remembered to turn it around so that he could read it. "The Pro-bending arena is finishing its renovations and hosting a new match next month! Can we please go?"<p>

Hiroshi Sato smiled at his daughter as she ran up to him. He leaned forward and looked over the newspaper briefly, then let out a slight sigh. In her excitement at the time, Asami hadn't noticed the sigh, but as she relived the memory now, it was clear as day. He looked up at Asami and his expression immediately softened. "Asami," he said. "Why don't you have a seat? I've been wanting to talk to you about Pro-bending for a while now, and this seems like a good time."

"What? Oh, of course, Dad," Asami said. She pulled out the chair across from her father and had a seat in it.

Hiroshi nodded. He folded his hands on his desk as he spoke. "First of all, Asami, I'm curious: What is it about Pro-bending that excites you so much?"

Asami's eyes widened. Her father was actually taking an interest in pro-bending! When she'd run in, she'd just been hoping that he'd send one of the guards to take her to the match, but perhaps if she could get him interested, he'd go himself. "Oh, well there's so much action and excitement moment to moment," she began, "but that's just at the low levels. With the best teams, there's so much more involved. There's so much strategy - it's like a battle in miniature. It's so much fun to think about what the captains are going to try to do to outplay each other, or what I could do better in their place."

"'In their place...'" Hiroshi said. His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "You mean, as in guiding the team?"

"Right," Asami said with a nod and a grin.

Hiroshi nodded. He seemed almost relieved, though again, Asami hadn't noticed it at the time. "I imagine you would be quite good at that indeed, Asami. You have a sharp mind, and you never fail to make me proud." Hiroshi was silent for a moment, as if considering just what to say next. "That's not just the key to success in Pro-bending, but in the rest of life as well. Being able to bend elements may help one in a fight, but the smart can avoid a fight entirely, or fight it on their terms, with their weapons. Always remember that. And never feel that you should be jealous of a bender. They should be jealous of you. For you, Asami, are the one who truly has the power to change the world."

Asami blinked in confusion, wondering just how the conversion had gotten so heavy. "Um, thanks, Dad. I'll do my best," she said. "But, um, about the Pro-bending match? Would you maybe like to come with me?"

Something flashed in Hiroshi's eyes momentarily. Asami saw it at the time, but she had no idea what to make of it, and so she'd ignored it then. Now, though, she had a pretty good idea. Ever since firebenders had killed his wife, Hiroshi had held a deep grudge against all benders. He hadn't mentioned anything about it to Asami for a long while, but the signs were all there. She'd just never pieced the clues together, and he'd never come clean with her.

"I'm sorry, Asami," Hiroshi said. "I have an important meeting that day. You can go, though. And I do hope you enjoy it."

Asami nodded. "Thank you so much, Dad," she said, a grin spreading across her face. Her father was interested in Pro-bending, and she was going to one of the biggest matches of the year. This was certainly a good day, even if her father wasn't free to watch the match with her. There would be another chance.

* * *

><p>Asami wasn't quite sure how much time had passed - whether she'd remembered that all in an instant, experienced it in real time, or somewhere in between. Whatever the case, she was back in the spirit world now, with her palm touching the tree and Korra's hand on her wrist. Her memories of that encounter with her father were as fresh as if they'd happened moments ago. Asami withdrew her hand from the tree, trying to figure out which part of this to process first.<p>

"Um…" Korra said, just as Asami had begun to pull back. She appeared a bit uncomfortable for a moment, but she did eventually continue, "I should probably tell you… I saw that too. With your father and his anti-bender lecture…"

Asami's eyes widened. That certainly settled the question of which part of this to handle first. "Korra, I don't…" Asami trailed off. After the way she'd turned against her father four years ago, it really went without words that she didn't agree with his beliefs. There was no need to defend herself here. Asami let out a brief chuckle. "I suppose I don't need to finish that sentence, do I? You were just letting me know you saw it as well."

Korra nodded. "Yeah. And well… Seeing your father, I thought it might be… you know. I'm here for you, if you need me," she said. She'd turned her head downward as she began to speak, but she looked up at Asami as she finished.

Smiling at Korra, Asami reached out to take her friend's hand in hers. "Let's talk," she said.

* * *

><p>Korra followed Asami to a nearby slope, then sat down beside her her friend. Asami was silent for a minute, and she never quite turned to face Korra, but Korra didn't push her. She'd never gone through anything quite like this herself, so she really didn't know exactly what stage of recovery Asami would be at now, or how that memory would have affected her. All she could think of to do was listen and try to be supportive for her friend.<p>

It took a bit, but eventually Asami began, "My father… As much as I want to, I can't call him a good man. Maybe in the end, his sacrifice helped atone for his support of the Equalists, but I can't say it outweighed it. On the other hand, I also wouldn't say he was a bad man. Behind all the unforgivable actions of the Equalists were some real complaints. Firebenders did kill his wife - my mother. Republic City was indeed controlled by benders from foreign nations, with locals - especially local non-benders - having little say in its government. And my father had met a number of people in his life who looked down on him for being a non-bender, treating him as lesser than them, or even pitying him for it."

Korra found herself shifting position uncomfortably as she'd heard this. She'd said some pretty stupid things to non-benders when she'd first arrived in Republic City, but she'd since gotten a much better sense of what it was like to be on the other side of power. In his own twisted way, Amon had managed to do that to her by taking away her bending abilities, and then Unalaq again by breaking her connection with past Avatars, and Zaheer through crippling her with the Red Lotus' poison. She didn't need Tenzin to tell her that the universe was serving her up a message on a silver platter. Anymore, at least.

"...Korra?" Asami said, breaking Korra out of her thoughts.

Korra blinked, looking up and over at Asami. "Yeah? Oh, sorry. I was listening, I just… kinda realized I… may not have been the best at that kind of thing in the past." Korra reached a hand around to scratch the back of her neck nervously. "I really… never thought about what it would be like to be without bending. Until well… you know."

"It's alright," Asami said. She gave Korra a soft smile, and reached out to place a hand on Korra's knee. "I know how much you've changed. It's one of the things that impresses me most about you."

Korra gave a weak smile in response to this. "Um, thanks," she said. "So, um, do you think that was what the tree was trying to tell us by showing us that memory?"

Asami leaned back, returning her hand to the ground and looking upward for a moment. "Maybe. It might be more to do with me and my father. What I was going to say was, although I don't think my father was a good man, he was definitely a good father. What you saw there, that's about as much as my father ever tried to sway me against benders, until I discovered his Equalist ties. If you take away some of his bias, and change his words just slightly, his advice is pretty much perfect."

"Really?" Korra said, going back over what she remembered of his words. She'd been a bit thrown off by the anti-bender sentiment at the end, but perhaps Asami was right.

Asami nodded. She shifted her position, turning to face Korra as a grin spread across her face. "What my father never knew was, when I was around that age and obsessing over Pro-bending, I'd occasionally wonder what if I'd turned out to be a bender, and could play myself. And while it was a fun fantasy, back in the real world, I realized that I'd never be able to put in the practice to be halfway decent at bending while also keeping up with my studies, my training, and everything else I wanted to do. What good was bending ability if I'd never be able to use it? I already agreed with my father - I'd much rather make use of my mind than bending, even if it bending were an option for me. But since I was already thinking of that, when my father said that to me, all I heard was him reinforcing that I was on the right track, and his anti-bender sentiments missed me entirely."

Korra couldn't help it. Asami's smile was infectious right now, and she had to return it. "So, I guess it would be a waste of my time to offer to make you a bender?" she said, not really thinking of the words as they passed through her lips.

Asami blinked. "You can do that?" she said, her eyes widening.

A moment of panic hit Korra. The world had known that she could restore bending that had been taken away through the energybending techniques Avatar Aang had taught her, but she hadn't revealed this part of the equation since she'd realized it herself. It had taken some time for her to piece it together after her vision of lion turtles using energybending to grant bending to Avatar Wan and his comrades before she realized it was basically the same as the restoration she already knew how to do, and she hadn't ever tried to put it into practice. She was worried about how this revelation might affect the world if people learned about it, and so she hadn't even mentioned the possibility to anyone. Until now, that was.

"Well, um, maybe," Korra said. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked into Asami's eyes. What was it about this woman that made her so loose-lipped? It was too late now, though. At least she knew she could trust Asami. "I've never actually done it," she said, "but it's in principle the same as how I restored Beifong's bending after Amon took it away. Just… maybe a bit more difficult, since it would involve bending someone's spirit in a new direction, not just bending it back to where it used to be."

Asami was silent for just a second. "You're right," she said. She shifted back to how she'd been sitting before, looking back up at the sky. "It would be a waste of time to offer."

Korra let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. She looked over at Asami, taking the time to try to gauge her friend's mood. Something still felt off. Asami didn't look like she was put off, but there was something bothering Korra. Was it something in the conversation earlier?

Korra turned away, running through Asami's memory and her later words, trying to figure out just what it was that was bugging her.

"_...And never feel that you should be jealous of a bender. They should be jealous of you. For you, Asami, are the one who truly has the power to change the world."_

"_...And my father had met a number of people in his life who looked down on him for being a non-bender, treating him as lesser than them, or even pitying him for it."_

"A waste of time…" Korra repeated. "And possibly… even offensive?" she said cautiously, trying to get into Asami's mind. Asami wasn't her father, but it was possible she'd felt some of the same treatment from benders. She'd certainly noticed it, to be able to lay it out like that. And her pride was centered on her mind, and her achievements in technology and her business. Suggesting she might be better off with bending… Maybe it wouldn't be so offensive to Asami, but for someone like her father, it certainly would have been.

Asami looked over at Korra, and her lips spread into a small grin. "Not in my case. But it very well could be offensive to some people. Though not so many these days, I suspect. Things are a lot less tense between benders and non-benders than they used to be, but there are still some people who bear open wounds."

"Right," Korra said. "That's kinda what I figured." After a moment of silence, she shifted her position, moving up so she was sitting closer to Asami, and she placed her hand on her friend's.

She should probably say something more. It was maybe a good time to change the subject, or perhaps get back to talking about Asami's father… but it wasn't Korra's place to bring that subject up. She'd have to leave it to Asami. Korra peered up at her friend's face, trying to get some insight into what Asami might be thinking about right now.

* * *

><p>Korra was certainly something. Asami couldn't help but be impressed by her friend's insight. It was really no wonder Asami felt herself drawn to Korra like this. It was a bit more of a wonder that Korra seemed to feel the same way, but there didn't seem to be much doubting that. As Korra placed her hand on Asami's, Asami found her gaze slowly climbing up Korra's arm, daring a few moments to linger on Korra's delightful muscle tone, and then up toward Korra's face.<p>

As if she felt Asami's gaze on her, Korra looked upward. She blinked a couple times, almost shyly. "Um… Asami?" she said. "...What are you thinking about?"

Asami let out a brief chuckle and turned away, hoping she hadn't been too blatant just then. Perhaps it was a good time to confess her feelings to Korra, though she hadn't yet had a chance to think about what the right words would be. No, it could wait until she'd figured that part out. She wasn't going to lie to Korra, though. Just leave a couple fine details unspoken.

"Well," Asami said, turning back to Korra. "Let's just say I was thinking about how amazing you are. I think I understand now how you were able to get Kuvira to stand down."

Korra smiled a bit at this, her face showing embarrassment at the compliment. "Well, it kind of goes with being…" Korra trailed off, her eyes focusing on something behind Asami.

Asami looked over her shoulder just in time to see what looked like a creature made of thick black wires assemble itself from the ground behind her. It was about half her height, with a roughly human-like shape, with a long torso, short legs, a short left arm, and a long right arm which came down to touch the ground. Over its "head," four wires stretched out to either side in a facsimile of hair. As Asami watched, a large mouth grew out from its "head." The mouth grew to about a foot across, and began speaking.

"Greetings, Avatar and Companion-whose-relationship-to-the-Avatar-is-not-clear," the creature said. Its voice was crisp and somewhat high-pitched. It reminded Asami of an old man who was inordinately proud of how well he could speak. "You are cordially invited to visit Master Sheng. He awaits your presence at his abode in Wen-Zhi Valley. Should you be unable to attend, you are politely requested to become able to attend, and then to attend. Thank you."

The creature tapped its right arm on the ground twice, and then seemed to be pulled into the spot on the ground its arm had touched. The wires that made up its body twisted as they spun about the arm, winding into the ground until they had all vanished from sight. At last, the mouth, now floating in mid-air, shrunk to a point and vanished.

Asami blinked. "That was… weird," she said, still staring at the spot where the creature had been.

"Even for this place," Korra said. "Though not by much."


	3. Distraction

**Author's Note:** Welcome back after the wait! We'll now be on schedule for regular updates to this fic every Tuesday, so stay tuned, and enjoy!

I'm now on tumblr as well. You can find the link to it on my profile. I'll be posting my stories there, plus some of my own analysis and discussion of the thought process behind it, so be sure to follow if you're interested.

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book One:** Command

**Chapter 2:** Distraction

**Teaser:** A bad time to think about Mako, and a sudden loss for words.

* * *

><p>"Was that a spirit?" Asami said, turning back to Korra. Her friend seemed almost as bewildered by this experience as Asami was. Although Asami had seen plenty of spirits before, she'd never been able to pick up on any rhyme or reason to their appearances. This certainly made it hard to say that something couldn't be a spirit. Something had felt lacking in this creature though.<p>

"Umm… I think. Kind of," Korra said. Her eyes were still focused on where the creature had been, and it took her a minute before she looked over at Asami. "It was caused by a spirit, at least. This 'Sheng'. Master Sheng." Korra's eyes darted to each side. Asami followed her gaze, but she didn't spot anything unusual. Or at least, more unusual than was usual here. "We should be polite. Just in case."

Asami had gotten the full briefing on dangerous spirits from Korra before they'd entered the spirit world, which had basically boiled down to: If it looked dangerous, it was probably dangerous. If it had a unique name, there were probably unique rules. Since Raava had won in the last Harmonic Convergence, things were mostly peaceful in the spirit world and most spirits were showing their good sides. Only some ancient spirits, as powerful as Raava or more so, were immune to this effect.

"Is Master Sheng one of these ancient spirits you mentioned to me?" Asami asked.

"That's my guess," Korra said, nodding at Asami. After a moment, she let out a breath and seemed to relax a bit. "I still don't feel any spirits around us, and I didn't while that… thing was here. So I'm guessing he's something old with a long reach. Probably not one of the more dangerous ones, or I'm sure I'd have heard of him by now. It wouldn't be a good idea to ignore his invitation though."

Asami gave a slight shrug. "It should be interesting. I wanted to experience the spirit world, after all. Maybe I should consider myself lucky to get to meet a spirit like him. Maybe I can even get him to think of me as something other than the 'companion to the Avatar,' or whatever his exact words were."

Korra let out a laugh at this. "Yeah. I really don't think that title will catch on for you. We'll need something better." Korra's eyes narrowed, and Asami caught a slight spark within them. "The Avatar's Right Hand, perhaps?" she said, her eyebrow rising as she spoke.

Asami's eyes narrowed. Korra couldn't possibly think that would do. "Perhaps not," she said. As she tried to find the right words to say next, the moment passed her by, and Korra let out a scoff.

"Fine, you win," Korra said. "I can be your right hand if you want."

This got Asami to grin. "Thank you, but I have a much more interesting role in mind for you," she said, giving Korra a quick wink. "How about…" The words were coming so easily to Asami right now that she wasn't even thinking as they came out, until she got to this particular part. But then her heart seemed to leap up into her throat, preventing any further words from coming out.

After a few moments, Asami felt Korra's hand on her own. She looked up and met her friend's gaze, and the soft affection she sensed there seemed to cause her heart to melt into her chest. "How about we figure that out one moment at a time?" Korra said, giving Asami's hand a soft squeeze.

* * *

><p>Asami's sudden silence had caught Korra off-guard, but she wasn't going to let it show. She couldn't remember the last time Asami had been at a loss for words. It was actually flattering, in a way. At least, that was the way Korra had decided to interpret it. Besides, the expression on Asami's face just now was beautiful beyond words. Korra would have easily felt the same way if she'd been asked to explain her own feelings for Asami at the moment.<p>

After a minute, Korra held Asami's hand in hers and stood up. "Come," she said. "I saw one of your memories. It's only fair that you see one of mine."

Asami's eyes widened, almost imperceptibly, but she did stand up. "That's alright, Korra, you don't have to show me anything," she said. Korra began walking back toward the tree as Asami spoke, and despite her words, her friend didn't actually put up any resistance to following her. "Do you even know if it will work again?"

"Nope," Korra said. Without a further thought, she stopped at the base of the tree and held their hands up toward the trunk. She paused before touching the tree, looking over at Asami. After a moment, Asami let out a sigh and moved to wrap her hand around Korra's wrist, just as Korra had held hers previously. With a smile, Korra touched her hand to the tree.

* * *

><p>It had felt like a lifetime since she'd last seen Mako, which was probably quite an apt way to put it. After being attacked by a dark spirit, being brought back from the brink of death without any memories, and then slowly regaining them as she learned the history of Avatar Wan, Korra truly did feel like she'd been through a lifetime. But now at least, she once more knew who she was, and it was all she could do to hold herself back as Mako accepted Lin Beifong's implicit apology.<p>

And then, for just a moment, his gaze crossed hers, and she couldn't wait any longer. Korra dashed ahead, wrapping her arms around Mako. She spent a precious moment feeling his presence before she pulled back, adjusting her head so she could steal a brief kiss from his lips. In the moment, she wasn't particularly in tune with Mako's state of mind, and so she'd completely missed how tense he was during the kiss.

Korra pulled back, and she looked into Mako's eyes as she said, "Mako, I missed you so much." The room was silent for a minute. Korra only had eyes for Mako though, and he simply seemed confused right now.

"Oh, did I forget to tell you?" Bolin said from beside Mako, finally breaking the silence. He held out an arm toward Korra. "Korra's back!" Well, that certainly explained Mako's confusion then. He was still catching up with things after getting out of his cell.

Mako seemed to relax, just a little. "Korra... hey, I missed you, too. So, you're not still mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad?" Korra replied.

"We had that fight before you left… remember?" Mako said.

"No, not really," Korra said. Searching her memory, she could remember leaving, but not any of the specifics surrounding it. "I got attacked by a dark spirit and I lost my memory for a little while. Maybe it hasn't all come back yet. Was it a bad fight?"

Mako seemed to tense up as he considered this. "Umm… uh… no, no. It wasn't that bad," he said. His eyes weren't meeting Korra's as he said this, switching between looking up, looking just below her eyes, and looking off to Korra's right. Even then, Korra wasn't entirely buying it.

* * *

><p>Korra's eyes widened as the memory faded. There was a particular reason Mako had kept glancing to the right as he lied about his and Korra's fight: That was where Asami was standing. She'd been watching and listening the whole time, as Korra unknowingly stole Mako away from her, and Mako lied his way back into a relationship with Korra. And right now, Asami had just been forced to go through it all again.<p>

Korra quickly looked over at Asami. "Asami, I'm sorry. I figured it would be with my parents or something, not like…"

Asami quickly shook her head. "No, it's fine," she said. "That's not your fault. You did nothing wrong, now or then." Asami gave Korra a smile, but it was quite obviously forced.

As Korra saw it, there were plenty of reasons for Asami to be unsettled right now, but certainly no reasons she should be smiling. Korra adjusted her hand so she could take Asami's hand in hers once more, and she gave it a squeeze. Now, she just had to figure out which part of this was bothering Asami more - was it experiencing that kiss with Mako through Korra's perspective, or was it the fact that she had to re-experience Mako's betrayal of her?

Her instincts told her it was the latter. That would certainly have hit Korra harder. Korra pulled her arm back from the tree, and she moved her other hand in so that she could hold Asami's hand in both of hers. "I blame Mako, personally," she said, smiling a bit as she tried to lighten the mood. "You with me on that?"

Asami let out a light chuckle, and her smile seemed to get just a bit more genuine. "Thanks, Korra," she said. She slowly shook her head, and her gaze fell downward. "But I really should have known better than to get involved with Mako at that time. It was my own fault I ended up getting hurt then."

"What? No," Korra said. "Even if you forget about his relationship with you right then, Mako screwed up. He should have told me about our break-up. Not that I'm still mad at him about it, but there's no way you were the one most at fault there."

Asami was silent for a long minute, but she did seem to be relaxing. Her eyes finally rose up to meet Korra's, and she said, "You're right."

There still seemed to be some reservation in Asami's voice, but it was probably about as much good as Korra was going to be able to do for now. Korra smiled at her friend, hoping her smile could be a bit infectious and help a little more. "Alright, let's get away from this tree," she said. "I think we've had enough of old memories for one day."

* * *

><p>There were many things that impressed Asami about Korra, but right now her ability to ease Asami's mind in a matter of minutes was chief among them. It started with just a few reassuring words, but then Korra quite literally pulled Asami away from the source of her present worries. "Um, Korra?" Asami said as her friend led her by the hand away from the tree and toward the nearby range of blue-white mountains. "Where are we going?"<p>

"Exploring," Korra said simply. She glanced back at Asami, an excited grin having spread across her face. "I want to see what's on the other side of these mountains. And perhaps we can find a good place to set up camp for the night."

Asami couldn't help but smile back at Korra, though she did find herself struggling a bit to keep up with her friend's pace. "Sounds good to me. You can let go of my hand now, you know."

"I know," Korra said, though her hand remained firmly latched onto Asami's. She did thankfully slow down just a bit so that she wasn't so much dragging Asami toward the mountains as leading her there.

Asami nearly rolled her eyes at this. Then she nearly sighed. In the end, she smiled. If Korra was that attached to her hand, she wasn't going to complain. She might look for a way to take advantage of it, though.

The question was, just what to do to take such advantage? Well, it helped keep Korra close to her. That was a given. It also gave Asami a perfect excuse to steal glances at Korra's hand and arm. As she found herself doing this, Asami made a mental note to see about giving Korra's hand some closer attention once they'd set up camp for the night. Something told her that Korra's bending practice would have made her quite in tune with her hands, and so there might be a certain interesting sensitivity there to the right sort of touch.

As it turned out, Asami couldn't quite wait until they'd found a campsite, or even until they'd reached the mountains. Once she was able to get her grip just right, she found her thumb idly circling around the back of Korra's hand. Asami did spot one curious glance from Korra, though as it was paired with a slight smile, it certainly did nothing to get her to stop.

What did get her to stop was when her boot came into sudden contact with a rock sticking out of the ground, which she'd managed to completely miss while she was focusing on Korra's hand. In a moment, her mind shifted into combat mode, ready to save herself from an embarrassing fall. She took in her current position, Korra's position, and what she could tell of the terrain beneath her feet, and determined exactly what she needed to do to keep from falling.

Then she ignored that plan and let herself fall anyway. Her plan would have involved an uncomfortable and possibly overbalancing tug on Korra's arm, and so she'd discarded it almost as soon as she'd come up with it. Korra could probably have handled it, but it was too late for that now. Asami's shin came down on the rock she'd tripped on, the edge of it cutting into her flesh and sending a flash of pain through Asami's leg.

"Asami?" Korra said. In the edge of her vision, Asami caught sight of Korra spinning in place. Before Asami was even able to bring her hand to the ground to catch herself, Korra had managed to airbend a gust of wind to cushion Asami's fall.

Mentally cursing herself for her earlier idiocy - of course Korra would have been able to handle a simple tug on her arm - Asami placed her hand against the ground so she could support herself. "I'm… alright," she said. She began pushing herself back to her feet as she said, "Thank you, Kor-" Asami winced slightly as she put weight on her injured leg. It wasn't too bad right now, but it certainly was painful. "-ra," she finished.

"Sit down," Korra said. "Let me handle this."

Letting out a soft sigh and smiling softly, Asami acquiesced and sat down, making sure she found a safer spot than where she'd just stumbled. There was no point trying to act strong right now, particularly around Korra. Asami was about to pull up her pant leg herself to inspect the injury, but Korra ended up taking over.

Korra sat down cross-legged in front of Asami, and she brought Asami's foot up onto her lap. Korra unbuckled Asami's boot and pulled it off. Asami almost began to speak, to let Korra know the injury was closer to her knee and that was unnecessary, but she found herself biting her tongue when she felt Korra's fingers trailing along her ankle as her boot came off. It would make it a little bit easier to pull up her pant leg, after all.

A moment later, Korra pushed up Asami's pant leg, and there was a brief flash of concern on her face. It quickly faded though. "Ah, this isn't bad," she said. "A bit of a cut and bruise, but I don't think the bone's damaged." Holding the pant leg up with one hand, Korra pulled out her canteen and bent some water onto the wound. Asami soon felt a soothing warmth where she'd been injured, and she let out a soft hum.

"Mm, thank you, Korra," Asami said, smiling at her friend. As Korra put her canteen away, Asami pulled her pant leg back down and replaced her boot. As she looked back up, she found her gaze suddenly meeting Korra's. Her friend's soft gaze caused Asami's heartbeat to pick up. The moment seemed to linger, and Asami felt herself being pulled toward Korra's face. This was a perfect opportunity.

Asami began to lean forward, her eyes focused on Korra's lips. She watched for any sign of hesitance or nervousness, but she saw none. She even saw Korra tilt her head just slightly so their noses wouldn't bump together. It should have been easy. It should have been perfect. She'd made moves in the past with far less of an invitation.

Just as Asami felt like she'd gotten up the courage to make a move, her mind flashed back to the first time she'd kissed Mako, and then how she'd gotten her heart broken. And then it flashed to the second time she'd made a move on Mako, and how she'd once more gotten her heart broken, this time with the image fresh in mind from seeing Korra's memory earlier.

"...Asami?" she heard Korra say.

Asami blinked, refocusing on her friend. "Ah, um… I'm sorry," she met Korra's gaze. Her mind went into a brief panic, worried about ruining this in some way. She couldn't let Korra think she wasn't interested. She had to… Well, she had to tell the truth. With a resigned expression, Asami said, "I just flashed to that memory from earlier. I suppose it threw me off."

Korra's eyes widened just a bit. She gave a sympathetic - and perhaps slightly disappointed - smile as she leaned back. "Right. That. Yeah. Not a good reminder right now. Alright," she said. She pushed herself back up to her feet, then reached a hand down toward Asami. "Let's see what we can do to put some better thoughts in your mind. I definitely don't want you thinking of Mako the whole time we're here."

"Good idea," Asami said as she took Korra's hand. "The sooner the better." After missing that opportunity, she wasn't planning to let another pass her by. She just had to make sure she was thinking only of Korra during their first kiss.

As they resumed their hike into the mountains, Korra began talking with Asami of her previous trips to the spirit world. Asami listened intently, trying to picture some of the spirits Korra was describing. Chances were though, she was completely off in her mental images of them. She'd really have to see them herself while she was here.

"Huh…" Korra said as they turned down a path into the mountains. There were plenty more up ahead, with no end in sight. "It looks like we might have a bit of a walk in front of us if we want to get anywhere new."

Asami nodded. "It's getting darker, as well. Perhaps it's time to set up camp for the night."

"I think it's just because we're in the mountain's shadow here," Korra said. "The spirit world doesn't seem to have a normal day and night cycle." Korra continued walking down the path, and a yawn soon overtook her. "Er… I guess it is pretty late for us, though."

Asami chuckled at this display from Korra. That was true. They'd left in the middle of the night, so they were already pushing into the early hours of the morning by now. "I think I see a good spot up ahead for camp," she said, pointing to a relatively flat patch of ground a ways up the trail. "How about we settle in there?"

"Yeah… I guess," Korra said, glancing quickly at Asami. "Actually…" Korra paused in her step, looking over at the mountain to their side.

"Unless you plan to bring in some of the soil," Asami said, catching on to what Korra was planning, "I don't think an earthbent cave will be quite as comfortable as that clearing. And I think that clearing's the nearest place to get any soil in any case."

"Oh. Right," Korra said, her shoulders dropping an inch. She stared at the mountain a moment longer, then let out a grunt. "Tch, how is it even the Avatar can't bend a decent bed?"

"Yes. Bedbending is certainly the Avatar's biggest weakness," Asami said with a smirk. "We just have to hope you never have to face off against a gang of criminals who only need a good night's sleep. Who knows what you'd do then."

Korra rolled her eyes and let out a brief chuckle. She followed Asami toward the clearing, where Asami took off her pack and began to set things up for them. She didn't bother with a tent tonight, instead simply unrolling the sleeping bags they'd brought along while Korra inflated their pillows with her airbending. In a matter of minutes, they were set up.

As soon as her sleeping bag was ready, Korra practically collapsed into it, not even bothering to change into some more comfortable clothes first. She rolled over onto her back and said, "What are you waiting for?" as she patted the bag beside her. With a chuckle, Asami knelt down and joined her friend. She didn't quite make it into her sleeping bag, though. Instead, she simply entwined her hand with Korra's and lay next to her friend. Gazing at Korra's face, Asami smiled as she let herself drift off into sleep.

* * *

><p>The flurry of words finally seemed to abate, at last allowing Sheng a chance to relax and focus on his preparations for the Avatar's visit. At the rate the Avatar and her companion were making progress, it would still be quite some time before they arrived. Perhaps he could find a way to help make their passage easier. They did seem to be taking the long way around. Perhaps there was something about the soil near them that they didn't like traveling through? Well, that was easy enough to solve. If they preferred air, Sheng knew some spirits who could help.<p>

Some time later, the words resumed, but with a much more pleasant aura to them this time. What was the word humans used for this…? Ah yes, "dreams." This was a much more pleasant background sound. It had been quite some time since he'd last heard dreamed words like this. Sheng found himself tempted to listen in to the actual content of the words. Perhaps now that he could stand to do so, he could gain insight into what was causing such strife while the humans were awake.

But he couldn't. It wasn't proper to listen in on one's neighbors, no matter how noisy they were being, or how much that noise was interrupting Sheng's routine. There were other options, though.

* * *

><p>Korra awoke to a pleasant warmth enveloping her. At some point during the night, it seemed that Asami had wrapped her arms around her. Well, this was certainly a nice way to wake up. Humming, Korra let a small grin cross her face. Judging by her breathing, Asami was already awake, but she hadn't moved away yet. Perhaps it was time to have some fun.<p>

"Mm… that's nice…" Korra muttered softly, as if she were speaking in her sleep. She felt Asami move slightly, but she heard nothing from her friend just yet. After a moment, she continued, "I know… c'mon, Naga…" Korra counted out the seconds in her head. Five seconds, just long enough that Asami wouldn't cut in, but long enough for her to process it, and then Korra finished, "Later, Naga… with Asami now. Asami first, then you…"

Korra felt a brief motion from Asami's chest as her friend let out a light chuckle, and then she felt her shoulder being slapped playfully. Okay, the jig was up.

Chuckling a bit, Korra pulled back and turned her head upward. She blinked her eyes open sleepily, focusing on Asami's face. "Oh, morning Asami," Korra said, as if she were just waking up right now. "Sleep well?"

Asami gave Korra a look that made it clear she wasn't buying it. "…," Asami said. Korra blinked, adjusting her head. She must have missed that. "…" Asami's eyes widened. "…!" she tried to say. Her lips were mouthing words, but Korra couldn't hear anything, and apparently she wasn't the only one.

"...Asami?" Korra said, her eyes widening. Her heart rate picked up as her mind ran through every spirit she knew of, trying to think of one who could have done this. She couldn't think of any, but maybe there was one she didn't know enough about. There had to be a way out of this. There was no way this could be happening, or at least no way it could be permanent. "Okay okay, I'm sorry about my joke," Korra said, hoping against hope it was just a trick. "You fooled me, okay? You can start talking again…. please?"

Asami's eyes gave the truth away. She slowly shook her head. This was real. But Korra wasn't going to let it be permanent, whatever it took.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong> Any and all reviews are deeply appreciated. It really helps me to hear back from readers, and know I'm connecting with people.


	4. Reflection

**Author's Note:** For those who missed it, you can now follow me on tumblr as well. Link on my profile, or look for me as "drleebot" over on tumblr. I just might be making a post about this story sometime soon. ;)

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book One:** Command

**Chapter 3:** Reflection

**Teaser:** What exactly happened to Asami? Has she missed her chance to speak up?

* * *

><p>"Um, thanks, Dad. I'll do my best," Asami said. She was back in her father's office now, though the room wasn't quite as clear as before. Once more, she felt a bit disconnected from herself as she spoke, watching it occur more than experiencing it. "But, um, about the Pro-bending match? Would you maybe like to come with me?"<p>

Something flashed in Hiroshi's eyes momentarily. Asami caught it, but she wasn't sure what to make of it... until her father let out a heavy sigh and began speaking. "I suppose now is as good of a time as any to tell you, Asami," he said, catching Asami off-guard. That wasn't supposed to happen. "The truth is, ever since your mother was killed by benders, I haven't been able to forgive them. Pro-bending is simply not something I would enjoy."

Asami blinked. Her father's statement had caught her completely off-guard. It felt like a sudden weight had attached itself to her chest as she processed his words, realizing this new side to the man. She tried to process this, but she simply couldn't wrap her mind around this way of thinking. After nearly a minute of silence, she said, "So, because some benders killed Mom, you hate them all? I mean, they were also all men who broke in that night, so are you going to hate all men? They were all firebenders, so are you going to hate all descendants of the Fire Nation?"

Hiroshi shook his head, a scowl crossing his features. "Of course not, Asami. This is different."

"Why?" Asami said, narrowing her eyes. She could feel anger beginning to build in her now. She wasn't sure if it was simply because her father was against Pro-bending, or if it was something else. "Because you're a man, so you can't hate men? We're both from the Fire Nation, so that's out? You could have just hated gang members, you know. Or maybe just the people who did it! Of all the benders in the world, less than a dozen had anything to do with Mom's death. Hate them with all your heart, just like I do, but let it end there!"

"Enough!" Hiroshi said, his face tightening. "I understand you're upset, Asami, but I will not have you speaking to me like this. Leave my office. The next time you enter, I expect you to have learned the proper respect, understood?"

Asami glared at her father. "...Understood," she said. She spun on her foot and marched out of his office. This wasn't over.

* * *

><p>"We had that fight before you left… remember?" Mako said. He was steadfastly avoiding Asami's gaze right now, which wasn't a good sign. Asami had already begun her mental countdown for how long Mako had to straighten this out, and he was quickly running out of time.<p>

"No, not really," Korra said. "I got attacked by a dark spirit and I lost my memory for a little while. Maybe it hasn't all come back yet. Was it a bad fight?" Well, that at least explained Korra's actions. It didn't make seeing the kiss hurt any less, though.

Mako seemed to tense up as he considered this. "Umm… well… yeah…." Mako let out a sigh. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them up, he glanced quickly at Asami, then back to Korra. "You broke up with me, Korra. I'm with Asami now. We'll talk in private, okay?"

Asami's eyes widened. She couldn't believe Mako had actually said that. She'd already been steeling herself for another round of heartbreak at his hands. Had Mako… actually handled something right when it came to his feelings for her and Korra? It was almost unbelievable. Perhaps impossible.

* * *

><p>Asami gave a slight shrug. "It should be interesting. I wanted to experience the spirit world, after all. Maybe I should consider myself lucky to get to meet a spirit like him. Maybe I can even get him to think of me as something other than the 'companion to the Avatar,' or whatever his exact words were."<p>

Korra let out a laugh at this. "Yeah. I really don't think that title will catch on for you. We'll need something better." Korra's eyes narrowed, and Asami caught a slight spark within them. "The Avatar's Right Hand, perhaps?" she said, her eyebrow rising as she spoke.

Asami's eyes narrowed. Korra couldn't possibly think that would do. "Perhaps not," she said. As she tried to find the right words to say next, the moment passed her by, and Korra let out a scoff.

"Fine, you win," Korra said. "I can be your right hand if you want."

This got Asami to grin. "Thank you, but I have a much more interesting role in mind for you," she said, giving Korra a quick wink. "How about… 'partner,'" Asami said. It might not have been the perfect word - it certainly couldn't describe all that Korra was to her - but it was good enough for a start. "With the specifics of that partnership to be renegotiated on an ongoing basis. But for now, as we'd say in Future Industries if we handled this type of thing, I'd call it an 'entry-level romantic partnership.' Sound good?" The words came out easily now. Almost too easily.

Korra's eyes were glued to Asami as the latter woman spoke. Eventually, Korra let out a laugh she'd been suppressing. Her face lit up, giving Asami a grin that could have brightened her darkest day. "Sounds perfect."

* * *

><p>A moment later, Korra pushed up Asami's pant leg, and there was a brief flash of concern on her face. It quickly faded though. "Ah, this isn't bad," she said. "A bit of a cut and bruise, but I don't think the bone's damaged." Holding the pant leg up with one hand, Korra pulled out her canteen and bent some water onto the wound. Asami soon felt a soothing warmth where she'd been injured, and she let out a soft hum.<p>

"Mm, thank you, Korra," Asami said, smiling at her friend. As Korra put her canteen away, Asami pulled her pant leg back down and replaced her boot. As she looked back up, she found her gaze suddenly meeting Korra's. Her friend's soft gaze caused Asami's heartbeat to pick up. The moment seemed to linger, and Asami felt herself being pulled toward Korra's face. This was a perfect opportunity.

Asami began to lean forward, her eyes focused on Korra's lips. She watched for any sign of hesitance or nervousness, but she saw none. She even saw Korra tilt her head just slightly so their noses wouldn't bump together. It was so easy. It was the perfect timing, the perfect invitation, and Asami couldn't help but lean forward, bringing her lips to Korra's.

"Wait," Asami said, forcing herself to stop. "I'm sorry, Korra, but this isn't right." Asami pulled back, taking a moment to take in details around her. She focused on Korra's hair. This was one good test she'd heard of. She tried to discern individual strands of her friend's hair. No matter how much she focused though, they all blurred together.

One more test to be sure. Asami took off her pack and dug in it for something with writing on it. Her flashlight, that would do. It had the Future Industries logo on it. Or at least, it should have had it. Right now, the rough shape of it was correct, but all it had was a blur where the text should have been.

"It's a dream. And not a very subtle one," Asami said, looking back up at Korra, who'd been uncharacteristically silent as she waited for Asami. "Though I usually find myself waking up around the time I realize that I'm dreaming. So, what's different this time? Something to do with the spirit world perhaps?"

"I don't know," Korra said. She wasn't quite Korra anymore, though. Her features had seemed to shift since Asami had realized she was dreaming. The left side of her face had paled, and part of her hair had darkened to black. "There's something different now, certainly, but I don't know if it's the spirit world alone doing this. I probably would have mentioned it if I knew something about dreams being different in the spirit world, wouldn't I? Then again, maybe I do know that this doesn't happen here, and that's so mundane I never bothered to tell you."

"...Right," Asami said. She eyed the figure in front of her for a moment longer. The change in her appearance seemed to have spread, though she couldn't remember noticing it doing so. Now nearly half of her face had changed, and Asami could see that the figure was starting to look more like herself, and less like Korra. She was speaking more like Asami as well. "I suppose you can't tell me anything I don't already know, can you?"

"In a sense, no," the figure said. As she spoke, the change in her appearance grew to include her mouth as well. The hybridization of her own features with Korra's in this manner should have been a rather disturbing sight, but in the context of a dream, it didn't seem that odd. "But I can tell you things you don't know that you know. I can tell you things you've just forgotten, such as reminding you of the three dreams you had prior to this one. Do you remember those?"

With the reminder, memories of her earlier dreams filled Asami's memories. She nodded. "I do now. And I'm starting to notice a pattern. Except this is the first time I've realized I was dreaming."

"Probably because you've noticed the pattern, at least subconsciously," the figure said. As she spoke, her transformation suddenly completed. She was now Asami as well, though not a mirror image. Rather, she was a few years younger, and wearing a casual outfit that Asami hadn't worn in many years. "The problem is, I've got work to do storing memories for you while you sleep, and this series of dreams is keeping me from it. So, let's get down to it. What do you think the message of all of this is?"

Asami narrowed her eyes a bit. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this figure, or her mention of work to do, but she did at least pick up on the pattern. "The pattern is simple. Four dreams, four memories replayed, but with events playing out differently at one key moment. Probably all leading to better outcomes, to one degree or another, though the scene with my father is debatable on that. Maybe in the long run I'd have been able to dissuade him from supporting the Equalists, but it didn't work so well in the short term."

"That's the pattern," the younger Asami said. "What's the message? Focus on the choice being made in each case."

For a moment, Asami debated whether to go along with this. The figure in front of her was an aspect of herself, though. She knew that. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but she did. But there was another hand at play here. Something else wanted her to get a message. Probably a spirit of some sort. It might be that it couldn't communicate normally, and so it had to do this. Or perhaps it was trying to trick her in some way. That was the thought that made her wary.

Well, she didn't have to go along with the result of all of this, whatever the message was. With a sigh, Asami decided to go along with it for now. "The choice. Alright. In the first dream, my father chose instead to reveal his bias against benders. In the second, Mako chose to tell Korra the truth about what she'd forgotten. In the third, I made an attempt at finding the right words to describe my relationship with Korra. And in the fourth, I moved in to kiss Korra instead of freezing up and missing my chance. Although, that last one did get interrupted when I realized what was going on.

"The common thread, then…" Asami shifted her position, placing the palms of her hands on the ground behind her and leaning back. She looked up into the sky as she thought over it. "...In the first three, the change was to reveal something. Or at least put an assumption to words. That doesn't work for the final dream, though."

"A kiss says a lot as well, remember," the younger Asami said.

"Hmm. True. Alright," Asami said. "So the dreams are all showing me that things go better when things are revealed, the truth is told, things are made clear… I guess that makes the message pretty obvious, especially considering that the last two dreams were about my relationship with Korra. Something is telling me to get over myself and speak up, and things will go better."

"That's what I believe, yes."

Asami looked back at the figure. "The only thing I don't get is, why do you look like that? Why aren't you just a mirror image of me?"

"Because I'm who you need to talk to right now. I'm you, from four years ago." The younger version of Asami leaned forward as she spoke, her gaze meeting Asami's. There was almost a challenge in that gaze. "And I certainly wouldn't have missed a chance to kiss Korra, just like I didn't waste any time kissing Mako."

"And so that's the message. I should be you again," Asami said. Her eyes narrowed. She didn't think she liked where this was going. "Or at least, I should be like you, and make a clear move. Okay, I get it. Message received. Is it time to wake up or go back to regular dreams now?"

A few seconds passed, but nothing happened. "Apparently not," Asami's other self said. "Perhaps you need to make a decision. Or perhaps it's simply a matter of waiting until your body wakes up. Though as I said, I do have some work to do while you dream, so I hope we can get you back to that soon."

Asami did find herself making one decision now: She did not like this. Someone or something had decided it was their business to meddle in her relationship with Korra and tell her what they thought was best. Maybe they were right, but the context of hijacking her dreams to get that across - and the implication that someone had been listening in on her memories to know enough to do so - was seriously off-putting.

"Fine," Asami said, standing up. Maybe whoever was behind this was listening in now. Or maybe she just had to say something to end this. She looked up and spoke, using her public-speaking voice. "If anyone is listening in, I would like to speak to you directly now. Please show yourself."

Asami waited. She looked around, waiting for something to happen. She gave it a minute, but she got no response, and nothing appeared.

"Very well," she said, speaking out once more. "Then here's my message. I consider this form of communication very rude and intrusive, but I can understand that you may not be familiar with humans, and so you may not have realized this. I will tell you now, though: Let me do this on my own. I can make my own decisions regarding my relationship with Korra, and I ask that you leave us to our privacy."

Asami paused once more. Still nothing. Maybe there wasn't actually anyone or anything listening in. Maybe she wasn't even asleep. This could be some spirit world trap, like the Fog of Lost Souls. Well, if that was it, it had to follow some sort of logic. Korra had told her there was always a way out. For the Fog, it was about accepting one's own fears and overcoming them. So, if this was something like that, what was it about? Insecurity, perhaps? Inhibitions? If that was it, then the only way out was to confess to Korra, or at least be prepared to.

Asami turned around, looking back at the younger version of herself she'd been conversing with a few minutes ago. Something suddenly hit her. "Maybe I was wrong," she said. "I thought you were a part of me. I thought I knew it simply, and if you were part of me, I would indeed just know it. But it might also be a trick. And if it is, then you're the one I have to confront to end this."

The younger Asami stood up. "I think you know I'm not a trick," she said.

"Yes," Asami said. "That's certainly what my mind is telling me. But that may be part of the trick, and so I have to allow for the possibility that I'm wrong. So, let's say you're the one behind this. Let me speak to you for a moment.

"First, this is coercion. If I'm being forced to remain here until I decide I agree with you, I'm being forced into it. Second, if I'm coerced into anything in my relationship with Korra, even something for the better, it will taint it. This relationship has to be ours and ours alone, even if I make wrong choices along the way. Otherwise, Korra won't be dating me, but whoever's guiding me.

"So, if you want to do the right thing, let me forget about this dream, and let me do things my way," Asami said. "That way, I can make the choice on my own. If you won't let me out without making a decision…" Asami paused. She took a breath to steel herself, then looked into the eyes of her younger self. "I choose not to speak. It may be the wrong decision, but it's the only choice I can make that I know will be made of my own free will. I can always explain it to Korra later."

* * *

><p>It took a minute for Asami's mind to catch up to where she was when she awoke. Over the past few weeks, things had been so hectic that it was rare she slept in the same bed two nights in a row. But for once, she found herself in quite a pleasant sleeping arrangement, with no pressing issues on her mind. She was on vacation with Korra. A vacation Korra had invited her on, in fact - just the two of them. And right now Asami found herself waking up with her arms around Korra, who'd crawled halfway out of her sleeping bag in at some point in the night to get closer to Asami.<p>

Oh yes. This was a nice way to wake up.

Asami was in no rush to move, so she didn't wake Korra up just yet. She instead spent a bit of time thinking back on their previous day. She hadn't had much time to imagine what it might be like in the spirit world, but it she certainly hadn't imagined this. She'd have to ask Korra if the spirit world had pushed this kind of introspection on her in her previous visits.

Asami furrowed her brow as her memories caught up with when she'd gone to sleep, and memories of a series of dreams came back to her. There was more introspection, and then it turned into a nightmare about being trapped in the dream just as she'd been about to kiss Korra. Asami shook her head and let out a breath. Just a dream, nothing to worry about now.

"Mm… that's nice…" Korra said softly. Asami's eyes shot down to her friend, and she smiled at this. She certainly would agree with that sentiment, though it did sound a bit odd to hear Korra admit it so easily. Perhaps her early-morning grogginess had resulted in it slipping out of her. "I know… c'mon, Naga…" Korra continued. Asami's eyes narrowed at this, giving her friend a warning glare even though Korra's eyes were still firmly closed. "Later, Naga… with Asami now. Asami first, then you…"

At this, Asami lost it. Korra's fake sleep-talking was both so transparent and so cute she couldn't help herself, letting out a chuckle at this. She gave Korra's shoulder a light slap to "wake" her friend up.

Korra chuckled as well, probably realizing that Asami had figured her out. She pulled back and looked up at Asami, blinking her eyes a few times. A hint of a grin was already on her lips. "Oh, morning Asami," she said. Asami narrowed her eyes just a bit to let Korra know she wasn't fooling her. "Sleep well?"

"Not bad. I woke up quite nicely, though," Asami said... or at least, tried to say. Her voice didn't seem to be coming out clearly. She blinked, trying to speak up as she continued, "And it seems you woke up in an interesting mood…" she said, trying again. It felt like she was speaking, but she wasn't hearing anything. Her heart beat began to pick up as she tried again, "Korra!" She could definitely feel it in her throat, but no sound came through her lips.

"...Asami?" Korra said. Her eyes widened, and Asami could clearly see the growing worry there. "Okay okay, I'm sorry about my joke," Korra said. "You fooled me, okay? You can start talking again…. please?" It took Asami a moment to realize what Korra was getting at. But no, unfortunately this wasn't simply a strange attempt at joking in turn.

Asami's gaze met Korra's, and she shook her head slowly. She wasn't joking with this. She had no idea what was happening, but there had to be a way to figure that out.

Korra's eyes showed worry for a moment, and then her expression hardened into one Asami had seen hundreds of times before in her friend's features: Resolve. "Okay," Korra said. She took a steadying breath, and then adjusted her position. She pulled back a bit from Asami and pulled herself out of her sleeping bag. She pushed herself up into a sitting position as she continued, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to figure out what's causing this, and then we'll go from there. We're going to fix this, okay? Are you with me, Asami?"

Asami nodded, almost on instinct. Despite the situation, she actually found the corner of her lips being tugged up into a grin. This was the Korra she couldn't help but admire, who she'd follow into battle without question. Of course she was with her. Letting Korra's confidence help keep her calm, Asami sat up as well, facing Korra.

"Okay. First things first, can you remember anything from last night, after I went to sleep? Did you wake up in the middle of the night and notice anything, perhaps?" Korra said. Her voice was steady, and her body betrayed no nervousness or fear. Her eyes, though… No, Asami forced herself not to look into Korra's eyes right now. If her friend was truly worried, perhaps it was better Asami didn't know it.

Asami took a deep breath. She leaned back and looked up as she tried to recall everything that had happened since Korra had fallen asleep. No, she couldn't recall waking up at all. That nightmare, though… That could be something. Asami looked back at Korra, trying to figure out how to communicate this to her friend. Well, she could start by answering Korra's question. Asami shook her head: No, she hadn't woken up. She moved her head down slowly while looking at Korra, bringing up a hand with a finger raised, trying to get across a "but."

She paused for a minute, trying to think of a way she could mime "dream," but it wasn't coming to her. With a frustrated huff, Asami turned to find her backpack. She rifled around in it for a minute, trying to look for something she could write with. She hadn't thought a need to write would come up when she was packing for this trip, and so she hadn't specifically packed anything for it, but she was pretty sure there was a pencil at least in one of her supply kits.

"Is something missing?" Korra said, distracting Asami in her search. That possibility hadn't occurred to her, but now that Korra mentioned it, it was worth looking into. Asami quickly went through all the major items in her bag, then shook her head. It was all there. She then grabbed out her toolkit and opened it up, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw a small pencil and pad of paper.

Asami pulled them out. It wasn't a particularly large pad, so she might have to conserve it in case this lasted for a while before she got back to the human world and could resupply. Depending on what they found out, they might not be able to spare the time to go back. So, Asami began to write in as small a script as she could manage and with as few words as possible to get her message across. "Had dream. Remember it clearly, trapped in it for a while."

Asami was about to write more, but she paused as Korra moved around to look at what she'd written. "Um, Asami?" Korra said after a moment, looking over at her friend. "I, um, think it's affected your writing too."

Furrowing her brow, Asami looked back over what she'd written. While she'd thought it made sense and had been coming out clearly as she initially wrote, her sentence was in fact a complete mess. She couldn't even pick out a single legible word in it. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Asami tried again. She'd do it one word at a time if she had to. She tried to slowly, carefully write out the word "dream," trying to keep it making sense as she wrote, but what made sense as she wrote was suddenly gibberish as soon as her pencil left the paper. Asami closed her eyes, grunting in frustration despite herself.

"Asami?" Korra said. Asami opened her eyes back up and looked over at her friend. Korra's face showed surprise, but of a good sort, considering the situation. "I heard that," Korra said. Asami tilted her head slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Your grunt," Korra explained. "I heard it. Maybe your voice is back?"

Asami's eyes widened. "Let me try to speak," she tried to say, but once again nothing came out. Her heart fell, and she let out a sigh. Then, after a moment, she let out a grunt. It wasn't a sound she particularly enjoyed making, but it was a sound. She heard it. Maybe it was just speech she'd lost? Asami looked back up at Korra and held up her hand as she tried something. "Aaaahhhh…" she said, simply trying to make a solid tone. Once more, she could hear it. Asami closed her eyes, finding relief in this development. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"There we go!" Korra said. Asami opened her eyes and looked at her friend, who was grinning widely now. "Our first clue. It's just speech you've lost. And writing. So… just words. You can make sounds…" Korra looked down, pursing her lips as she thought, then she looked back up at Asami. "Can you draw?"

It was worth a shot. Asami nodded at Korra and then brought her pencil to the pad again. Okay, she wanted to get across "dream" to Korra. Not the easiest thing to draw, but not impossible. Asami started simply, sketching a stick figure on its side. She pulled her pencil back when she was done with it, looking at it for a moment. It worked. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"There we go!" Korra said. Asami felt her friend's hand on her knee, giving it a soft squeeze, and she smiled back at Korra.

Asami went back to her drawing, trying to fill in the rest of the needed details. She drew in a face on the figure with horizontal lines for closed eyes, trying to get across that it was sleeping. Above it, she drew a cloud, representing thoughts, as done in newspaper comics. Inside it, she sketched a smaller stick figure inside a cage. When she was done, Asami looked back up at Korra, motioning to the cloud with her pencil.

"A cloud, no… thoughts? A dream?" Korra said, narrowing her eyes as she tried to make it out. Asami nodded her head quickly as Korra hit on "dream," and she gave her friend an encouraging smile. She pointed again at the figure in the cage she'd drawn within the cloud. "Okay, in the dream… Someone's trapped?" Asami nodded again, then pointed at herself. "You. You were trapped. You dreamed you were trapped somewhere?" Asami nodded at first, then pointed back at the cloud she'd drawn. A look of confusion crossed Korra's face, and so Asami drew in a line connecting the cage to the cloud, with arrows at both ends. "The dream was the cage?" Korra said. Her eyes widened suddenly, looking at Asami. "You were trapped in a dream?"

Asami nodded, letting out a sigh. That was the key part. There was still more that might be useful for Korra to know, though, about the message she felt someone was trying to get across to her, but that would be trickier. She'd have to think about that a bit to figure out how to communicate it.

"Okay," Korra said. Her hand shifted, coming to a rest on Asami's knee. "So then, how did you get out, do you remember?"

"_So, if you want to do the right thing, let me forget about this dream, and let me do things my way," Asami said. "That way, I can make the choice on my own. If you won't let me out without making a decision…" Asami paused. She took a breath to steel herself, then looked into the eyes of her younger self. "I choose not to speak. It may be the wrong decision, but it's the only choice I can make that I know will be made of my own free will. I can always explain it to Korra later."_

Asami remembered all too clearly. She could remember every word she'd spoken then, as if it had been engraved in her mind.

"_I choose not to speak."_

Was that it? Had Asami's words been taken too literally by whomever or whatever had trapped her in her dream? Asami felt a sinking feeling in her chest. She'd done this to herself. She'd gotten careless when dealing with something powerful here, and it had cost her.

Asami suddenly felt Korra's arms reach around her torso. Her friend pulled her in close, and Asami soon felt Korra's body press up against hers and her friend's head coming to rest on her shoulder. Letting out a breath, Asami reached her own arms around Korra's back, returning the embrace. Somehow Korra knew just what Asami needed right now, even if Asami couldn't say it out loud. For that, Asami was grateful beyond words.

"We'll figure this out," Korra said. "And we're _not_ going to let it ruin our vacation. I'm showing you a good time here, whether you can thank me for it or not."

Asami let out a light laugh, just barely audible. Her chest filled with warmth at this reminder of just why she'd fallen for Korra. She definitely had made the wrong choice, but she had to deal with it now. She was certain they could find a way out of this. And when they did, Asami knew what the first four words out of her lips would be. _"I love you, Korra…"_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Please leave a review if you enjoyed! They do wonders to encourage me to keep writing.


	5. Tunnel

**Author's Note:** Thank you all for the lovely reviews on the last chapter. I hope you all continue to enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book One:** Command

**Chapter 4:** Tunnel

**Teaser:** The search for answers begins, and Asami searches for a brighter place ahead.

**Content Warning: **Potential claustrophobia trigger.

* * *

><p>"We'll figure this out," Korra said, holding Asami securely within her arms as she spoke. "And we're <em>not<em> going to let it ruin our vacation. I'm showing you a good time here, whether you can thank me for it or not."

Asami slowly seemed to relax as Korra held her. Korra wasn't sure exactly what had caused her friend to suddenly get upset like this. It could have been many things, really - Asami had more than enough to be depressed about in her life. Though really, that didn't matter right now. All that Korra cared about was that Asami was hurting right now, whatever the reason. She was going to be here for her friend, as long as she was needed.

After a few minutes, Asami pulled back from the embrace. She smiled at Korra, giving a small nod of thanks. She then glanced over at her backpack and made a few motions with her hands, miming eating some food.

"Ah, good idea," Korra said with a nod. It usually wasn't a problem finding food in the spirit world, but this region of it did seem more barren than normal, so it was a good thing Asami had reminded her to bring along some rations. Korra pushed herself over toward her own backpack and searched through it to find some of them. "Okay, here we are," Korra said as she found some. She sat back and faced Asami as she unpacked them. "And don't worry, just leave it to me and I'll get us some real food before the day is out. Just let it try and hide from me!"

Asami narrowed her eyes in response to this as she began to eat her own breakfast, though the corner of her lips did curl up a bit.

"What? Some food can hide! Especially if you have to hunt it… which you wouldn't here, because there are no animals, only spirits, so…" Korra glanced to the side as she tried to think of a way to cover for her previous comment, but nothing was coming. When she looked back at Asami, she caught the other woman just about to break out into laughter. "Shut up! It's the spirit world, I'm sure vegetables can hide here. Probably."

Asami managed to stop herself from laughing, but she did smile at Korra and give her a wink.

* * *

><p>"Alright," Korra said as she finished her breakfast. She folded up her ration's wrapping and placed it back in her backpack. No need to ruin this pristine environment through littering. Plus, for all she knew, there was some anti-littering spirit she might offend by just dumping her trash here. Or maybe a litter-eating spirit who'd prefer she left it… Well, she couldn't satisfy everyone. "So. Anything in particular you'd like to do today, Asami?" she said, looking over at her friend.<p>

Asami tilted her head to the side. After a moment, she held a finger up as she seemed to come to a decision. She leaned her head back and tapped on her throat. She then brought her hand to her mouth and mimed something coming out of it, then tilted her head, opened her eyes wide, and gave Korra a sad look.

"Hmm… you want to listen to spirits throat-singing a tragic love song?" Korra said. "Well, I haven't heard of any that can do that, but we can ask around." She tried to keep a straight face as long as she could, but Asami's gaze made it difficult to keep it up. She held up her hands and smiled. "Okay okay! Just kidding. We can try to figure out how to get you your voice back. But it could take some time to figure out, so we might as well enjoy our time here, right?"

Korra paid close attention to Asami's expression. She sensed that trying to keep the mood light was for the best right now, so that Asami didn't get too worried. And so it didn't ruin their vacation. She just needed to make sure that Asami didn't think she was taking this too lightly. Thankfully, Asami let out a sigh and nodded. She did give Korra a serious look, though. Perhaps for now they should decide what to do about this.

"Okay," Korra said. "Let's take this one step at a time. First thing, let's brainstorm. Anything we can think of that might be able to fix this, or at least tell us more about it." She pushed herself up to her feet as she began to think about this; she'd been sitting or lying down for more than long enough, and there was no reason she couldn't give her muscles a good stretch while she did this. As she began to stretch herself out, she said, "Okay, first… healing. I could try to use my waterbending to fix it, though I don't think this is the type of thing it can work on. We could also take you to Katara to see if she could help, but again, it may just be impossible to heal that way."

Asami nodded. She followed Korra's lead and pushed herself up to her feet. She did a few stretches of her own, then seemed to think about something for a moment. She knelt back down and grabbed her pad and pencil again, then stood up and began to draw something. After a minute, she passed the pad over to Korra.

Korra eyed what Asami had drawn - or perhaps written - for a moment. It looked kind of like Asami had written the character for 'Sound,' but with a few mistakes with the bottom half and with a mouth drawn in the middle of it. "Um, were you trying to write 'sound'?" Korra said, looking up at Asami.

Asami blinked. She snatched the pad of paper back from Korra and looked at it for a moment. A smile slowly crossed her face, and she let out a laugh. She shook her head, handing the pad back to Korra. She pointed to the drawing, then down toward the ground. She held her hand up at about waist height, using her other hand to point between the drawing on the pad and the space below her hand.

It took Korra a minute, but she suddenly caught on to what Asami was getting at. "That creature!" she said, her mind flashing back to the creature that had made an appearance before them the previous day. Asami's drawing actually matched it quite well. "The one who invited us to visit Master Sheng."

Asami gave Korra a relieved smile and nodded at this. There was perhaps a hint of frustration in her expression, but Korra ignored it. It might have taken her a bit, but she did figure it out.

"Yeah, that was weird," Korra said. She furrowed her brow for a moment as she thought. "It's the only thing we've encountered here so far, so I guess it's a good bet that it might be connected to what happened to you. It didn't feel like a spirit to me though, so I can't track it easily. I suppose we could go to Zhi-Wen valley, like it said… though I really don't know where that is.

"Hmm…" Korra pursed her lips for a minute as she thought. "I'm sure some spirits will know. Some might even have an idea about what happened to you. So we should put 'gather information from spirits' on our list as well."

Asami nodded at this. She seemed to be thinking about something herself, though she wasn't coming up with any other ideas. Or at least, she wasn't coming up with any ideas that she could communicate with Korra. It was possible she knew something complicated that she couldn't express, though.

"Asami?" Korra said. Her friend turned to face her again. "I just thought of something. Is there anything you know, or any ideas you have that might help, that you just don't know how to tell me about?"

Asami's eyes widened at this, and she nodded. She shrugged slightly, giving Korra an apologetic expression.

"No no!" Korra said. "I'm not blaming you! I just… Well, I just wanted to check. In case something comes to me later, and we can figure out how to communicate. Some weird spirit world way for me to get into your head or… something…" Korra trailed off as she said this, looking away from Asami.

After a moment, Korra felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked over to find Asami giving her a quizzical gaze.

"Ah, um… sorry," Korra said, smiling weakly. It wasn't exactly an idea she wanted to try, but it was a possibility. And it really didn't seem fair to hold anything back from Asami right now. "Alright. Spirit-bending. If this is a spiritual issue, there's a chance that could fix it. It's not exactly the safest thing in the world, though. I could end up hurting your soul in some way, or getting hurt myself. But… it is a possibility."

Asami gave Korra a soft smile and nodded slowly. She seemed to think about something for a minute, and then she reached down to take Korra's hand in hers. Asami brought Korra's hand up to her chest, pressing Korra's palm against her heart. She held it there with both of her hands, then looked into Korra's eyes. She slowly, deliberately tried to speak a sentence. Nothing came out from her lips, but Korra could feel her friend's chest moving with every word Asami tried to speak.

Korra looked into Asami's eyes. When they were fighting alongside each other, she and Asami always seemed to instinctively know what the other was planning to do. It was some mix of practice, a natural bond, and simply knowing each other well. And right now, those same instincts told Korra exactly what Asami was trying to say. "You'd never want to risk hurting me like that, would you?" Korra said.

Korra could feel Asami's heartbeat speed up just a bit. Her friend smiled and nodded at Korra. Korra smiled back, feeling a warmth growing in her chest at this reminder of how much Asami cared about her well-being.

"Hey, don't worry," Korra said. She smiled at Asami. "We're gonna figure this out, and no one's going to get hurt. Just leave it to me. Far from my first time doing something like this. We just need to keep moving forward. Even if it seems dark now, we'll come to a brighter place eventually."

Those weren't quite the right words. Korra was pretty sure she'd heard something like that in a past life, but there was no way for her to remember it exactly, after Raava's destruction and rebirth three years ago. But… there was something there. Korra smiled to herself, then looked back at Asami and smiled at her friend.

"Alright, let's start with some waterbending healing," Korra said, grabbing her canteen from her hip. "Just in case it helps."

* * *

><p>Asami paused in her step. Something was off. After confirming that her lost voice wasn't anything Korra's waterbending could heal, they'd decided to set off to find a way to the rest of the spirit world. She and Korra had been making their way through the mountains for a few hours now, with no sign of life from anything but the two of them. And yet, Asami found her combat instincts kicking in and was preparing to defend herself at a moment's notice. She still had no idea of the reason for it, though.<p>

A moment later, Korra stopped as well. She didn't turn back toward Asami, though. "A spirit's coming. Underground," Korra said. "I'll try and get a pin on exactly where it is, but watch your feet."

So, her instincts had been on to something. Asami still couldn't sense anything in particular from this spirit, though. Her instincts must have been taking their cue from Korra's body language. That was probably her best bet, then, until she got some other sign of where the spirit was. Asami watched Korra as she shifted her stance, ready to leap away at a moment's notice if the ground began to fall out from under her.

Korra's gaze suddenly shot over toward Asami's feet, and Asami leaped aside. She spun in mid-air, facing the spot she'd just left, and her hand moved to her hip, ready to put on her electrified glove if needed. As she landed, she saw the ground in front of her glow yellow. It seemed to liquify, being sucked downward in chunks, and then a creature popped up in the middle of the new hole.

The creature reminded Asami of a badger mole, though it was colored a pale orange and was hardly larger than a boar-q-pine. It had no eyes that she could see, and it seemed to be sensing mostly with its nose, which shifted color from gold to black and back again. It turned to face Asami - at least, she thought it was facing her; it could also have been the back of its head for all she knew - and said, "Ah, there you are. Why do you humans insist on hiding in the air? Don't you know how hard it is to smell you there?"

Asami blinked. Although the creature was definitely speaking, it didn't have a mouth of any sort that she could see. Instead, its nose seemed to shift color in time with its voice. For a moment, her mind tried to make some sense of this all, but then she gave up and simply let a grin cross her face. Now, this was the type of thing she'd been hoping to encounter when she'd come to the spirit world. Perhaps with a bit less threat of falling in a newly-formed hole, but no harm was intended or done.

Asami began to speak - or at least, she tried to. She covered up her momentary forgetfulness as she looked over at Korra, though it unfortunately turned out that she hadn't been quite discreet enough with her slip-up. Korra didn't say anything, but she did give Asami a quick smile and wink before she stepped toward the creature.

"We really weren't intending to hide from you," Korra said. "So I'm sorry if it seemed that way. In any case, I'm the Avatar Korra, and this is my… friend, Asami Sato. We're here to visit the spirit world."

The creature turned toward Korra and sniffed in her direction a couple times. It skittered out of its hole and over toward her, then circled around Korra's feet as it continued to sniff at her. "Korra, Korra… Nope, not familiar. You sure you didn't mean to say Kuruk? You've got a very 'Kuruk' smell."

"Nope, I'm Korra. I'm from the Water Tribe as well, though, which is why I might remind you of him," Korra said. She looked down at the creature as it sat in front of her, a grin on her face now. Asami found herself smiling as well, though in her case it was at the thought of someone actually managing to get Korra and Kuruk mixed up. "Would you mind telling us who you are?"

The creature tilted its head to one side, then the other. "What do you mean? I am who I am. If someone told you I was someone else, they were wrong."

"No no, I mean, what's your name?" Korra asked.

"Name? Do I look like a human to you? What do I need with a name? I swear, you humans just make no sense sometimes…" The creature turned, heading over toward Asami. It looked up at her, sniffing the air a bit, then circled around her feet, sniffing some more. "Now you… you're being sensible. Not asking weird questions, not trying to confuse me about your identity. I think we could get along well. I've been looking for a pet."

Asami looked over at Korra with a grin as this creature spoke, then let out a laugh at its last sentence. She knelt down, getting on a level with the creature, and held out her hand to it, palm down. It leaned over toward her hand and sniffed it for a moment.

"Actually, Asami's been having trouble speaking today," Korra said, taking a few steps toward Asami and the creature. "When she woke up this morning, she'd lost her voice. By any chance, do you know what might have caused that?"

The creature turned its head to look over at Korra. "Morning? What do you mean by that?" Asami gave Korra a glance at this, and a sympathetic smile. She'd forgotten herself that this place didn't have a normal day and night cycle.

"Um, I just meant, when she woke up," Korra said. "So, is there anything around here that could take her voice away? Any spirits to watch out for, perhaps?"

"Around here? I'm the only spirit here now. More might come later, once I get a tunnel dug," the creature said. "I'll have to check this place out myself, too. These mountains smell quite beautiful. But I've got work to do. Gotta get back to digging." The creature hopped and turned around, heading back to its hole.

Work? That meant someone had asked it to dig this. Asami shot Korra a glance, then looked at the creature, hoping her friend got the hint to follow up on this point.

"Oh, sure," Korra said. "But, um, who are you working for?" she asked. She glanced quickly at Asami, who nodded to confirm Korra had gotten the message.

"Master Sheng," the creature said, pausing as it reached the edge of its hole. "He's paying me quite well to dig a tunnel from here to Zhi-Wen Valley. Which I really have to do, or I won't get paid. So, if you don't mind…" The creature touched its nose to the ground near its hole, causing the earth to turn yellow and liquify. The creature soon began to suck the earth up into its nose, circling the hole as it worked.

"Oh, sure!" Korra said. Her face lit up at this revelation, and she looked over at Asami. Asami grinned and nodded, encouraging her friend to pursue this. "We actually need to meet Master Sheng. Could you tell us where Zhi-Wen Valley is, so we can head there?"

The creature paused in its digging for a moment. "Fastest way is through my tunnel. Why else would I be digging it? Long way to go, lots of work to do, but the pay is good." The creature went back to its digging. It was making steady progress, turning its hole into a tunnel that Korra and Asami might be able to use, but there was really no telling how long it could take before it was finished.

Asami let out a sigh. She looked at Korra and shook her head, then shrugged. She looked around for a moment. Perhaps there was someplace else they could go in the meantime?

Korra nodded. "Okay. Well, thanks then," she said to the creature, giving it a polite bow. "We'll be back in a while, and we look forward to using your tunnel once you're finished with it. I think we'll go visit someplace else in the spirit world in the meantime."

The creature let out a chittering noise as it resumed working on its tunnel. Asami stepped around the work site, joining Korra. Judging by her friend's pace, Korra was thinking the same thing right now: Get far enough away so they could talk in some privacy, then discuss this.

Asami and Korra didn't get too far away though before the creature called out to them, "Wait a minute! Why are you going that way?"

"Huh?" Korra said. She and Asami paused in their step and turned around. "We're off to see the rest of the spirit world," she said.

"You really are bad at making sense…" the creature said. It didn't have eyes, but Asami nevertheless felt like it was rolling its eyes at them. "There's no more of it that way, unless you want to go the long way around to get anywhere. Everything else is this way." The creature motioned downward with its nose.

"Below us?" Korra said, her eyes widening a bit.

Asami's mind flashed back to her conversation with Korra the previous night. One of Korra's ideas was that this was the underside of the spirit world, and the trees they saw were the roots of the Tree of Time. Perhaps she was right after all, which would mean they were upside-down right now compared to the rest of the spirit world.

"Well it's not above you. Nothing but air up there," the creature said. "The ground is where you want to go through to get anywhere quickly. You'd think humans would have figured that out by now…" The creature seemed to shrug, and it hopped back into its work site.

Asami turned to Korra, and a moment later, her friend turned to face her as well, a proud grin crossing her lips. She cracked her knuckles, and got into an earthbending stance as she said, "Well, what do you say, Asami: Want to see how the Avatar digs a tunnel?"

Asami smiled at Korra. She met her friend's gaze and took a step back. She casually flipped her hair back, making sure it didn't look like she was doing it on purpose. She then waved her hand out, encouraging Korra to show off her best.

* * *

><p>No matter how long she knew Korra, the Avatar continued to find new ways to impress Asami. It was quite obvious she was doing it on purpose, but Asami certainly wasn't complaining. Well, she wouldn't have been complaining even if she could right now. She'd been expecting Korra to earthbend a tunnel for them; that wasn't the impressive part. It was the elevator Korra had managed to bend for them that was really a nice touch. Korra was even able to keep it to a smooth ride as she she bent the earth around them, propelling them downward.<p>

At least, it was smooth up until the point when gravity suddenly shifted on them, resulting in both Korra and Asami falling into the side of the elevator, and then the ceiling. Asami's instincts were woefully unprepared for falling in this manner, and so she ended up hitting her shoulder rather hard against the wall in the first fall and let out a sharp grunt. By the second fall, Korra's instincts were able to kick in and use her airbending to cushion the impact a bit, though with the rather confined space, Asami's elbow still ended up crashing into the wall.

Asami had lost her grip on her flashlight in the chaos, and the light had gone out on them, leaving the two of them in pitch blackness. That wasn't a big issue, though; it wasn't as if there was much of danger in here. Asami reached her hands out, feeling at the area around her to get an idea of where Korra was. Thankfully for her pride, she didn't end up accidentally groping Korra as she did this, and her hand simply came into contact with her friend's leg.

As she touched her friend's leg, it began to strike Asami as odd that Korra hadn't said anything yet. "Korra?" she tried to say, forgetting again that it wouldn't work. Asami shifted her position, feeling carefully around herself to try to get a sense of the situation.

They were in an enclosed earthen box far underground, with limited air inside. If Korra wasn't responding or moving, she was likely unconscious. She'd been able to cushion the last fall though, so it was very unlikely that she'd hit the ceiling - now the floor - with enough force to do any damage she couldn't use her waterbending to heal. But healing it would require waking up, which would require surviving long enough, which would require a sufficient supply of air.

"Alright, Korra," Asami said. No sound came out, but she ignored that fact. The important thing right now was to keep calm, and talking this through would help her with that, whether anyone heard her or not. Besides, she'd had enough of keeping quiet today. "I'm going to need to open this elevator up. I hope you didn't make the walls too thick, and I hope you thought to leave a hole for air up above us. Now, if you know where my flashlight is, now would be a good time to speak up."

No sound came from Korra, so Asami began to search around the floor for wherever it might be that her flashlight had gotten to. She kept her breathing as steady as possible; she couldn't afford to waste air. She methodically went over every inch of the floor, tracing around Korra's unconscious body. She was able to find her backpack, then Korra's bag. No flashlight, though. Asami tucked her backpack into the corner, then turned back to Korra.

"I'm sorry about this, Korra. I promise I won't tell anyone I had to do this with the Avatar," Asami said. She began tracing her hands over Korra's body, searching for the presence of the flashlight. "I better not find out later that this was just some ill-advised trick to get me to feel you up," she said as she began tracing her hands over Korra's chest. "Because honestly, you could have just asked."

There! The flashlight had ended up between Korra's left breast and her arm. Asami grabbed it and leaned back, trying to turn it on. The switch was no help, but Asami had been expecting that. They'd made this model to be durable and water-resistant, which meant that the power-supply disconnected automatically whenever something went wrong. Once she hit the button on the base to reseat the power supply, the light immediately turned on.

Asami let herself smile at this. "There we go. That's one task complete. Now, let's see how you're doing, Korra," she said. She leaned forward again, bringing her fingers to just below Korra's nose. She was breathing. Good. Asami turned the flashlight up toward Korra's head, searching for any sign of injury. She didn't want to risk moving her friend, but at least from what she saw, there wasn't any blood. That didn't mean they were out of the woods yet. A concussion could still be quite serious. She might even need to take Korra to see another healer when they got out of here. "Okay. You'll live," Asami said. "I just need to make sure you live long enough now."

Asami turned to her backpack. Thankfully, digging into rock was one of the tasks she'd been prepared for, in case she and Korra had ended up doing any rock climbing while they were here. Climbing wasn't likely to be of much help right now, but a piton would still get the job done of opening up an air hole for them.

"Hold tight, Korra," Asami said. "I've got this." She took a deep breath, trying not to think of the fact that doing so was using up their air supply. As Asami got out a piton and hammer, Korra's words from earlier came back to her. She just had to keep moving forward, and they'd come to a brighter place. One careful hole at a time, until she found the light.

* * *

><p>"Mm… that's nice…" Korra muttered softly. She was only half-conscious right now, but it was quite a pleasant way to wake up. "I know… c'mon, Naga…" Korra reached her hand up to give the polar bear dog a bit of affection she was sorely needing, judging by all the licks Naga was giving her right now. "Later, Naga… with Asami now. Asami first, then you…"<p>

Naga's kisses stopped as Korra said this. "Is Asami the name of your friend?" Naga said.

Korra's eyes blinked open as her mind finally realized that this wasn't quite making sense. For one thing, Naga's licks came from far too small of a tongue. For another, Naga didn't talk. ...That probably should have been the first thing.

Korra focused on the figure of a white puppy, who was currently perched on her chest and looking down at her. A smile crossed her face as she recognized this spirit. "Hey there, little cutie," Korra said. It was the closest she had to a name for this spirit. It certainly fit, but she might need to find out or come up with a better one sooner or later. Speaking of names, "And yeah, Asami's her name. So um, mind telling me how we got here?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> In case anyone has any ideas, I'm looking for another image to display as a "cover" for this story, now that the main plot is underway. If anyone knows of any scenes, official art, or fanart which they think would fit well, please let me know!


	6. Light

**Author's Note:** First of all, my heartfelt thanks to Talita Persi for allowing me to use her lovely piece of Korrasami fan art as the cover image for this fic. You can find the link to her tumblr and the original in my profile. I've also got a post up on my own tumblr now with my thoughts on why I think this image works so well; you can find a link to it in my profile as well.

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book One:** Command

**Chapter 5: **Light

**Teaser:** With Korra out of commission and the two of them trapped far underground, Asami must find a way to survive.

**Content Warning: **Potential claustrophobia trigger.

* * *

><p>Asami started with the wall. If Korra had left an opening behind them as she'd earthbent rock around their elevator, and if they were upside-down now relative to how they were when they'd started, then that opening would be below the floor now. Making a hole in it didn't strike Asami as a good idea, though. There was too much risk of the floor giving out beneath them if she did that. It was originally the ceiling, after all, and so she didn't imagine Korra had thought to make it very thick.<p>

It was an option, though, if they needed to get out. But it was risky, and there wasn't a need to take a risk like that just yet, so the wall it was. Asami found a decent seam between two slabs of rock in the wall, then placed the tip of her piton against it. Holding her flashlight between her elbow and side, she carefully struck the piton with her hammer, pushing it in inch by inch, wary of losing her grip on it once it broke through the other side of the wall.

Asami closed her eyes and let out a sigh as she felt the piton break through. She pulled it back and brought her flashlight up to inspect the hole. It wasn't really much of a hole - pitons were designed to help with climbing after all, not making holes - but it was something. It wouldn't allow much airflow as it was, but if she worked to expand it, she could try to breathe through it herself. That would leave more air in the elevator for Korra along, which would in turn buy Korra some more time to recover.

Asami brought the piton up to the wall again, and she began working to expand the hole. This step was simply survival. She had to think about what she could do to actually get out if Korra didn't wake up on her own soon enough. She didn't remotely have the tools she'd need to dig her way out, so that was off the table. She'd need to get help. If not from Korra, then from someone or something else.

As far as Asami knew, although certain people could meditate to enter the spirit world from anywhere in the human world, there was no way to do the reverse. The only way to contact anyone in the human world was to get to a spirit portal and go through it. Or else, luck into meeting someone from the human world who was meditating and projecting themself into the spirit world in the right place. This wasn't exactly impossible - Korra said that she'd let Jinora know where they were going and to contact them if needed - but it was far from likely.

After some work, Asami had managed to get the hole just wide enough to fit a couple of her fingers in it. She didn't quite trust it would allow enough airflow yet, so she turned to the other wall. She found a seam in it, then traced it down to near the floor. If she made a hole here, she could try to position Korra's head near it so her friend would be able to breath a slightly fresher mix of air.

In any case, barring a very lucky visit from Jinora, Asami couldn't count on help from any humans. That left spirits. They'd only encountered one actual spirit so far: that miniature badger mole who was digging a tunnel to Zhi-Wen valley. If she could find a way to contact it, it would almost certainly be able to help. It might not be as fast at getting through earth as Korra was, but it could do it. The question was how to contact it.

Asami ran her and Korra's conversation with it through her mind. It had mentioned being able to smell her and Korra's rough location from when it was underground. So there was a chance it could still smell them, and perhaps notice that they'd stopped moving. That might make it come and check what was going on. She couldn't count on that happening, though. Perhaps there was something she could do to get its attention. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to mind right now.

Aside from that creature, they'd only encountered the strange wire creature with a large mouth, who had invited them to see Master Sheng. Korra had said it wasn't a spirit, though. Perhaps it was an extension of Master Sheng, then. Well, it seemed to be able to travel through the ground, so there was a chance it could get in here as well. And Master Sheng was aware of their presence somehow, though Asami really had no idea how. So again, there was a chance he might notice they needed help, but she couldn't think of anything she could do to call out to him.

Perhaps she should give meditation a try, then. It might help her get in contact with some nearby spirit. She'd never tried it before though, and she had no training in it. It had taken Korra quite a long time before she'd had any success with it, but Asami might have a bit more luck. It wasn't very likely, but it was a possibility. It might even have been her best idea so far, at least once she got done with making another air hole. Worst case scenario, it would help slow down her breathing so she'd use less air, giving Korra more time to wake up.

The air hole was decently large by this point. Asami tried to use her flashlight to look through it, and see just what might have been on the other side of the wall. She couldn't make out anything past the hole, though. That was probably a good sign. It at least meant there was some space out there, which meant a decent amount of air. It still had to get in though With the amount of time it was taking Asami to dig out air holes, she wasn't quite sure the math worked out in favor of spending time and energy to make any more.

Asami turned back around and placed a hand on Korra's shoulder. "I'm going to move you a bit, Korra," she said. Still no sound, and she still didn't care. "Hopefully this will let you breathe well enough." Asami carefully shifted her friend's body, adjusting Korra's position so that her face was as close to the hole as possible. She then sat down herself, not far from the first hole she'd made. Time to give meditation a try.

She'd give this some time, making an effort to call out to any spirit who might be nearby. If it wasn't working, and Korra didn't wake up, Asami would consider trying to break through the floor. But not yet. So, first, the position. Asami sat crossed-legged, then turned off her flashlight and placed it between her legs. She closed her eyes, balled her hands into fists and touched them gently against each other in front of her stomach.

It was her first time trying this herself, but she'd spent quite a bit of time watching over Korra as she meditated. The first part was breathing. She had to keep her breath slow and steady. Focus on nothing but her own breath. Slowly in, slowly out, and repeat. In… out… repeat. Try to empty her mind now. Free herself. Let herself connect with the world, but don't force it. She was pretty sure that was how it went.

Clearing her mind was the hard part right now. First, she caught herself thinking about how she was supposed to be clearing her mind. Then she was thinking about how she was failing to clear her mind. And then she was thinking about how hard this was, and wondering if it was even possible. But no, she could do it. She had to do this. For Korra's sake, Asami had to make this work.

Asami was able to get a bit better at it, and she felt like she was getting somewhere. But then her mind drifted to imagining the unconscious figure of Korra. When she pushed that out of the way, her mind instead conjured up an image of Korra's head striking the floor. Asami nearly winced as she pushed this out of her thoughts. Korra was going to be fine. She'd survived that impact. If she'd been in any real danger, she'd have gone into the Avatar state and…

The Avatar state! Asami's eyes opened. She grabbed her flashlight and switched it on again, focusing it on Korra's face. If she could get Korra to go into the Avatar state, it would wake her up and she'd be able to get them out of there easily. And to trigger it… Korra had to truly be in danger.

Asami gazed at her friend's face. It wouldn't be hard at all to cut off Korra's air supply, which would likely prompt her body to go into the Avatar state. After a long minute, Asami found that she couldn't bring herself to move a muscle, though. That would be putting Korra's life at serious risk, and she wasn't that desperate yet. But if nothing changed, then Korra's life was in danger anyway. If she didn't wake up, then they'd run out of air eventually, and Korra would end up in the same situation. The only difference would be that Asami would be suffocating at the same time.

From that perspective, it made sense to try to force the issue now. Asami spent another long minute gazing at Korra's face, trying to imagine herself pinching her friend's nose shut and covering her mouth. She could feel her heart twisting at just the thought of it. No, she couldn't do it. She'd wait it out if she had to, and take the risk that something might happen to her before Korra could save her.

But she wasn't going to give up on meditating just yet, either. She had a more tangible goal in mind now. There was just one spirit she needed to contact: Raava. Asami figured that Raava would normally be harder for someone else to contact through meditation than any other spirit, but she was also far closer than any other right now. Perhaps it was worth trying.

Asami turned off her flashlight and leaned back. She let her eyes fall closed, and she cleared her mind as much as possible. She could do this. There was no way Korra was going to die on her watch.

X-X-X

Maybe it was the fact that she was in the spirit world. Maybe it was the isolation from all sound and light. Maybe it was all the time she had to commit to meditation. Whatever it was, Asami felt like she was getting somewhere. She could feel something with her. She tried to follow the connection, hoping it would lead her to Raava, but… no, it wasn't her. It was something, though.

Asami let her mind drift. She couldn't force this. Every previous time she'd tried to force a connection to something, it had faded away. She wasn't going to miss this chance. She kept her mind clear, letting thoughts seep in as they might, but not holding on them. It was as if she'd been drawn into a flowing river of ideas. She had to ride it out, let it take her where it might, and simply watch the images that flashed through her mind.

She was a teenager again. Her father taught her how the engine on a motorcycle worked. She redesigned the cycle, having figured out how to improve its fuel efficiency and make it more aerodynamic. She rode the cycle through Republic City, and only barely avoided running over Mako. On a date with Mako, she learned that he needed money and saw an easy way to get in his good graces. She met Mako's teammates; his brother was friendly, but the Avatar was distant.

Asami tried to get closer to Mako. She asked him to join her in her bed one night, but his nerves overtook him and he turned her down. She managed to get closer to his friend, Korra, showing her an exciting drive. She learned that Korra had a crush on Mako, and she realized Mako had feelings for Korra as well. It dawned on her that she'd acted too quickly, without knowing the whole situation. Her eventual heartbreak was her own fault.

Mako and Korra got together; Mako and Korra broke up. Asami's life crumbled around her, and she succumbed to weakness. She wanted someone, needed someone, but she didn't think about who. She went where she'd been before, and it all happened again. She kissed Mako, she got back together with Mako, and she got her heart broken by Mako. This time, at least Korra made the right decision in the end and called it off with Mako for good. It didn't undo the fact that Mako had dumped Asami for her, but it did give Korra and Asami one thing to bond over.

They helped each other through it, and when they were both doing well again, they stuck together as friends. Asami kept growing closer to Korra, even beyond what she could call friendship. She felt things that she hadn't felt since she was in school. When Korra was nearly killed in battle with Zaheer, Asami was willing to throw her life away to take care of Korra. But she never admitted the true extent of her feelings.

"_I really should thank you, Asami," Kei-Lin said as she got dressed. She refused to meet Asami's eyes as she spoke. A sad smile crossed her features. "I… I suppose I needed to try this to know it couldn't work. I'm just…" Kei-Lin shook her head, turning away. "I have to go." She wasn't even fully dressed, but Kei-Lin grabbed her shirt and headed out of Asami's room, ignoring Asami's pleas to wait._

A pain in her chest. Heartbreak all over again. Things were better now, though. That was far in her past. She could put it behind herself. She just had to let the river of thoughts move on. It would bring her to Korra. Korra. She could feel Korra. The pain in her chest didn't go away, though. She shouldn't be feeling heartbreak any longer. She'd missed Korra for a long while, but Korra had needed the time, and she'd returned a new person. A new person who was closer to Asami than ever before. A person who might love her back, not caring about the fact that they were both women.

The pain in her chest was worse, though. She shouldn't be afraid of anything. She was going to get through this. There was no reason to feel heartbreak. She just had to get out of here with Korra before they ran out of air.

Air. She was running out of air. Time was running out. Korra must still be asleep. But she'd come this far. The river had brought her to the present. It had to mean something. It had to…

Asami gasped for breath, trying to take in more air to help fill her lungs. It wasn't doing much good, though. Now that she'd reconnected with the world, she was all too aware of her body. Her head felt light, her fingers were tingling and slightly numb as she felt around for her flashlight, and the pain in her chest was getting worse.

"Korra…" Asami tried to say. Still no sound. She closed her eyes, trying to keep herself from feeling like she'd failed her friend. It wasn't over yet, but it was close. "Korra… I need your help…" Asami said.

Asami leaned forward, feeling out for her friend's body. She found Korra's shoulders with her hands, then leaned forward. She rested her forehead against Korra's cheek, and she squeezed her eyes shut to keep in the tears. She couldn't lose Korra like this.

Asami tried to calm herself. She was so close. She felt as if her thoughts had been taking her to Korra. There must be some connection there she could communicate through. She just had to find it. Asami tried to steady her breathing, focusing on her friend. She pushed all other thoughts out of her head. She couldn't let herself worry about running out of air right now.

...There. It was still there, just barely. As soon as she felt it, instinct overtook Asami. Words came out of her mouth before she knew she was speaking. She felt the truth in each word as it slipped out of her mouth, the sound of her voice filling the space between her and Korra.

"I need you, Korra."

* * *

><p>There was nothing. No sights, no sounds, no feelings. No change, no time.<p>

No Korra.

No need to wait. There wasn't a Korra here who needed to wait. Maybe she'd come along later and decide to wait, but she wasn't here now.

"_...Korra…"_

There was still nothing. Probably. Still no sights. Still no feelings. Probably no sound. Asami couldn't speak, so Korra hadn't just heard her voice.

"_...need… Korra…"_

There was no sound to echo. Nothing to echo off of. No one to hear it.

"_...I need you, Korra…"_

She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be hearing that. Korra wasn't supposed to be here. Asami's voice… she couldn't have just heard it. But if she had… and if Asami needed her…

* * *

><p>Light. Asami's brain had hardly processed the fact that she'd actually heard herself speak when the world filled with light. Asami opened her eyes, finding herself face to face with the awakened Avatar. White light shone from Korra's eyes. Asami felt Korra's hands grasp her sides, and the room opened up around them.<p>

The elevator Korra had carved out of earth broke apart in less than a second. Korra pulled Asami in close to her, wrapping one arm around Asami's waist and thrusting the other arm upward. Rock opened up above them as Korra pushed a massive column of earth skyward. In the seconds it took for Korra to lift it up, Asami's mind slowly caught up with what was happening. She let herself smile, and tears of relief began to fall from her eyes.

Asami couldn't even see the light from the surface, but apparently Korra had cleared the way, as she lit twin fires beneath her feet and rapidly propelled the two of them toward the surface. Asami wrapped her arms around Korra, holding on through the rapid ascent. Light suddenly flooded Asami's vision, and she had to squint to let her eyes adjust. She barely saw anything of this side of the spirit world before she felt Korra slow down, and then carefully touch down on the ground.

As her eyes adjusted, Asami caught sight of Korra carefully replacing the column of earth she'd displaced to free them. Korra's arm remained around Asami as she did this, and it was only after she'd turned back to Asami that she moved her arm. Korra reached down, taking both of Asami's hands in hers, and gazed into her friend's eyes.

Asami looked back at Korra, smiling at her friend. Korra was still in the Avatar state, and so her eyes glowed pure white, but it was still quite obvious that she was gazing directly back at Asami.

"I need you too, Asami," Korra said.

The light faded from Korra's eyes, and they fell shut. Her body began to slump toward the ground, but Asami reacted quickly enough to catch her. She tried to shout her friend's name, but only air left her mouth. Asami pushed that worry aside for now, though. She shifted one arm around Korra's back to support her friend, and she brought her hand up to check that Korra was still breathing.

Asami let out a sigh as she felt her friend's breath. She was alive. She just needed more time to recover. And apparently, so did Asami. She'd been able to speak when it truly mattered, though. Even if her voice had left her now, at least she knew now she had it in her.

"Avatar Korra? Are you alright?"

Asami looked up, catching sight of a spirit flying toward her. It had a round, yellow body, with two green leaves on its head. It flapped the leaves as it flew toward her, showing concern in its face as it looked at Korra.

* * *

><p>"I rushed to meet you as soon as I sensed your presence," the spirit explained to Korra. It had shifted back into its normal form, though it hadn't yet moved from Korra's chest. "But when I got to you, you were unconscious, being held in your friend's arms. She hasn't been able to say anything, but I think she really cares about you. Her face… it was just indescribable. I… Well, she was definitely worried about you. But I think she was also a bit relieved."<p>

"Mm… I care about her too," Korra said, smiling at the spirit. She began to sit up, though a sudden wave of dizziness and headache struck her. She winced and lay back down. "Damn… what happened to me?"

"I think you hit your head on something," the spirit said. "Your friend pointed to it with a worried expression. Don't worry, though! There's a spring not far from here, just up the cliffs nearby, and its water should be able to heal you. Your friend left a bit ago to get water from it. She should be back soon."

"Ah. Okay," Korra said. She carefully turned her head to the side, trying to get an idea of where she was right now. The rocks surrounding them reminded her a bit of Hai-Riyo peak, though she didn't recognize this particular spot. "Hmm…" she looked back up at the spirit, shifting a bit as a thought nagged at her. "Um, do you know why Asami - my friend - didn't take me to the spring herself?" Korra said. There was probably a good reason. She just needed to hear it to ease her worries.

"Oh. That's simple. It's because she can't fly, and I'm not big enough to carry you," the spirit said, its leaves flapping as it spoke.

Korra blinked, staring at the spirit in confusion. "Um, you're gonna have to give me a bit more to go on."

The spirit was silent for a minute. Eventually, it spoke. "Well, I was showing your friend to the spring, and she was carrying you as she followed me. When I flew up the cliffs near here, she shook her head at me. Since she couldn't fly, she had to climb. She was able to find a place she could climb up, but she wasn't able to carry you while she did it. And I can't carry you at all. So I'm watching over you till she gets back."

"Oh. Well that makes sense," Korra said. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes. Her head was throbbing a bit, but it wasn't as bad as it had been when she'd tried to sit up. Hopefully it wouldn't be long until Asami returned. "Hmm… You know, I don't think I ever thanked you," she said after a bit. "I really did need your help back before. If you hadn't guided me to Toph, I might still not have recovered."

"You don't need to thank me," the spirit said. "After what you've done for the world, and what happened to you… you deserve help when you need it. I'm just happy I could figure out a way to help you. How many spirits can say they've been able to help out the Avatar?"

"Heh… I suppose. Hmm…" Korra opened her eyes up again, looking at the spirit. "I really should have asked you earlier: Do you have a name? I can't just keep calling you 'little cutie' forever."

The spirit tilted its head to the side. "You can if you want to. I don't mind. I don't have any other name, anyway."

"Hmm… nah, I think you need a name," Korra said. She looked at the spirit for a moment, trying to think of an idea. She furrowed her brow at the first one that came to her. "Well, Bumi's giving me bad ideas. My first thought is to name you 'Korra Junior,' or Kor-Ju. I don't think that quite works, though."

The spirit gazed at Korra for a minute. "I don't think so either. Especially since I'm a boy, you know."

Korra blinked. "Right. I… um. I knew that. That's why I said it didn't work. So let's see… Well… you can name yourself if you want, I suppose."

The spirit tilted his head to the other side now. After a minute, he spoke. "'Light,'" he said. "I'm a spirit of light, after all. So you can call me 'Light.'"

A smile crossed Korra's face. "I like that," she said. She brought a hand up and stroked Light's head. "Nice to meet you, Light."

* * *

><p>Asami searched for a decent place to begin her descent. She'd lost her and Korra's bags when they escaped from the elevator, and so she didn't have her climbing gear to rely on now. She had to be careful, especially in her descent, as she wouldn't be able to see where she was going as easily.<p>

Reaching the spot where she'd initially gotten up to this landing, Asami peered over the cliff. It wasn't going to be easy, but she could manage. She'd already faced a much harder trial today, after all. A grin crossed Asami's face as she plotted out the path she planned to take, making sure she had each step memorized before she went down. She needed to be able to do this without sight if needed.

As she got down to the final few steps, her gaze landed on Korra's body, lying where she'd left her friend, and she caught a glimpse of motion. She paused, squinting her eyes to try to make it out. Her arm. Korra's arm was definitely moving. She was awake.

Asami closed her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. Korra's advice from earlier echoed in her head. Asami had been trapped, but she kept moving forward, and they were finally getting to a better place. The same would happen with her voice. She'd already seen the light once. She'd see it again.

With a smile firmly fixed to her face, Asami turned around and began to climb down the cliff.

_**End of Book One: Command**_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you for everyone who's left a review along the way with this fic. And thanks in advance for anyone who leaves a review now. -hinthint- I really love hearing back from readers and talking with fellow fans.

Book Two: Question will be starting next week, as part of this fic as well. I've also got a special surprise lined up for Valentine's Day, so be on the lookout for that as well - follow me if you want to make sure you don't miss it!


	7. Memories of Regret

**Unspoken Words**

**Book Two:** Question

**Chapter 1:** Memories of Regret

**Teaser:** A vision from the past returns to haunt Asami.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Capital City, Fire Nation, seven years ago…<strong>_

"The question, my son, is 'Why?'" his father said.

Izin hadn't been able to hold his father's gaze as he spoke. He'd never seen so much disappointment in it before. He'd seen a lot of disappointment from his father over the past years, but not like this. His father had always held out a sliver of hope that Izin's bending abilities might develop later on, just as they did for Fire Lord Zuko. But now, on Izin's 16th birthday, even that sliver of hope had been crushed.

Izin shook his head. "I don't know, father. But Sage Tonnu says-"

"Do you think I don't know!?" his father snapped. Izin's eyes shot up, meeting his father's gaze. "'A paradox is just the truth standing on its head to call attention to itself,' right? He's told me that a thousand times as well. Fine. You want to turn this on its head and search for truth? Then let's do it. Sit."

Izin nervously obeyed his father. He took a seat near his father's desk. He didn't speak a word. Saying anything right now could only make things worse. He had to wait until the right moment before he spoke; otherwise, his words would be wasted.

"Let's start with a few known truths," his father said. He pushed himself up from his desk, towering over Izin now. "First: Whenever two benders of the same element have a child, that child will have the ability to bend that element. They may not be very good at it, they may not develop it until their early teens, and they may require much practice to master it, but they will be able to do it. I have heard of no exceptions to this rule, and neither has anyone I've spoken to.

"Second: I am a firebender. Your mother was a firebender. Every one of your older brothers and sisters is a firebender. You are not. This, as Sage Tonnu would say, is the paradox." Izin's father strolled around to the side of his desk. He focused on a tapestry on the wall, which illustrated the family tree as it was at the time of Izin's birth, extending up to his grandparents. "On its own, this would simply be a disappointing novelty. It would be interesting, and perhaps tell us something we don't yet know about bending. But this isn't the whole story. Look at this family tree, Izin. What do you see?"

Izin hardly needed to answer this question. His father had pounded this point into his head so many times that it went without saying. But he said it anyway. It wasn't worth provoking his father any further right now. "I'm your eighth child," he said. "And you're the eighth child of your parents."

"Exactly," his father said, nodding slowly. "The number eight has always been a symbol of good fortune throughout the Fire Nation, but particularly for our family. We were the eighth family to be granted a noble lineage by the original Fire Lord. And throughout our family's history, the eighth child of every set of parents has always been a powerful firebender, even if their parents were both nonbenders.

"You, Izin, are such a child," Izin's father said, turning back to him. "By all rights, you should be a firebender. Not only that, you are the first eighth child of an eighth child in our family's history to have survived infancy, and you were born on the longest day of summer, the one day of the year when more firebenders are born than any on any other day. Your mother and I had so many hopes for you. Your birth should have fated you to be the most powerful firebender in history, if not something more. In my deepest dreams, I imagined you might even turn out to be another Avatar. And if you were, then today, on your 16th birthday, is when I would traditionally tell you of this fact.

"But no!" Izin's father clenched his hand into a fist and pounded it against the wall behind him. The temperature of the room noticeably heated up. "You, Izin, are not the Avatar. You aren't a firebender. You are nothing. There is but one explanation that makes any sense of this. Your mother… who every day professed her love for me, and who to the day of her death never spoke a word that I found out to be a lie… Your mother must have been unfaithful to me.

"In other words, Izin. You are not my son."

Izin closed his eyes. He'd known this was where his father was going. He didn't believe it, though. He could hardly believe his father could believe this. As he'd said, Izin's mother had loved him more profusely. She would never have been unfaithful to him.

"I can't believe that," Izin said. He opened his eyes, looking up to meet his father's gaze. "I'd rather believe the world has a twisted sense of humor, and the eighth child of an eighth child in our family must instead be a nonbender. Or I'd believe the eighth child trend has just been a coincidence, and there's something about inheritance we don't know. I would never doubt my mother, and I can't believe you could!"

"The facts cannot be changed, Izin," his father said. He looked downward, and Izin could feel the room slowly begin to cool back down to a normal temperature. "And the fact is, I can no longer bear to let you live in my house. I will not have it get out that your mother was unfaithful to me, and so you will not speak a word of this conversation to anyone. In return, I will supply funding to let you set up a new life for yourself, anywhere but here."

* * *

><p>"I must apologize, Izin," Tonnu said. His words came out a bit more slowly than usual, and sadness showed in his features. "I truly never expected my words to lead your father to such a conclusion. I meant to guide him to notice the part of you that truly is special and unique, and the ways in which you actually are gifted. I do hope he will someday see the error of his ways."<p>

Izin stared silently at the wall across the room. It had been all he could do stop himself from crying when Tonnu knocked at his door, and he feared if he said much right now, his voice would give him away.

After a minute, Tonnu continued, "Your father came to the wrong answer, but I do believe he was asking the right question. Sometimes the search for an answer is more important than the answer itself." Tonnu walked over to Izin's desk and pulled out the chair. He turned it to face Izin and took a seat. "In your case, Izin, you've been blessed with one of the sharpest minds I've ever seen. If you'd been a firebender, your father would have made you focus your time on training that skill. But without that, you have time for other pursuits. So perhaps this is why."

Izin shook his head. Many possible replies ran through his head, but nothing seemed right. None of this was right. At last, he said simply, "Where should I go?"

"The world is open to you," Tonnu said. "But if you want a recommendation, I would say Republic City. I hear that Future Industries is recruiting some of the best minds the world over to work for them. It could be exactly where you're destined to be."

"Future Industries…" Well, they certainly had a good reputation. Any boat in a storm, as the saying went. Izin closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "Why not?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Now…<strong>_

Hearing a faint sound from the cliff nearby, Korra turned her head toward it. Her face brightened at the sight of Asami working her way downward. She spent a moment simply gazing at her friend. Her mind was hazy on what exactly had happened after they'd met the digging spirit on the other side of the spirit world, but she knew one thing for sure: Asami had been taking care of her since they'd reached the surface. She owed Asami her heartfelt thanks for that.

Although, it was certainly frustrating that Korra couldn't remember exactly what had happened. At least this time she already knew a good way to restore her memory, so they only had to make a brief detour to the Tree of Time to get that resolved. Asami would probably be interested in seeing it anyway. The problem was, Korra still might find a way to screw something up horribly due to her lack of memory in the meantime. Last time she'd lost her memory, she'd accidentally put Mako into a position where he broke Asami's heart. Nothing that bad was likely to happen now, but something still nagged at Korra.

Korra let out a sigh. "Wish I could remember what happened to knock me out like that…" she said, turning back to look up at Light as she spoke. "Maybe I should apologize to Asami when she gets back, just in case. Something tells me I should do that. And anyway, what's the worst that could happen if I do?"

Light tilted his head to the side, and then back. "I don't know… She could call you on the fact that you don't know what you're apologizing for?" The spirit looked back down at Korra, a cheerful expression crossing his face. "It'll be alright, though. There are plenty of ways to figure things out in the spirit world, especially for the Avatar, so I'm sure it won't take you long."

"Well, I'm not sure if being the Avatar still helps as much…" Korra said, furrowing her brow. "I kind of renounced my role as bridge between the two worlds after I left the spirit portals open. So I'm not sure if I'm still as connected to this place as I used to be…"

"Well… then just try it!" Light said. "That's the only way you'll know for sure, right?"

"Hmm…" Korra glanced over toward the cliff Asami was descending. Her friend was being careful and taking her time, so perhaps Korra could do something before she got back.

Although… maybe she should instead earthbend a few steps for Asami to make it easier. Though that would require getting up to do so, which would mean another splitting headache, which might cause her to screw up and hurt Asami. So… not a good idea. She could try it while lying down, but earthbending was all about the stance, so again, there was really too much of a risk of screwing it up.

Korra let out a sigh. There wasn't really that much time, in the end, and she didn't want to be distracted with something when Asami got back. "I'll try later," she said. "Just wish I could remember what happened. I really feel like I screwed up somehow."

"It'll be fine. Asami didn't seem mad at you at-" Light trailed off, and his eyes focused on something behind Korra. "-at all. So, um, you really don't need to regret anything. Though on that note, I think your emotions might still affect this place when they're strong enough."

"Huh?" Out of seemingly nowhere, a raindrop hit Korra's forehead. It was soon followed by another, and they soon picked up into a light rain on her face. She looked upward from Light, finding that the sky above her seemed to have darkened and filled in with a single cloud. Then she remembered where Light had glanced previously. "Is there something behind me?" she asked. It probably still wasn't a good idea to turn her head unless there was something dangerous there. She just had to focus her emotions, calm herself down.

Light nodded. "It looks like… a ripple in the air. I don't see anything in it, though."

Korra gave a slight nod. She closed her eyes, trying to focus her thoughts. _Happy thoughts. No more rain. No regrets. Things I'm proud of, that's what I need. Um…_ A sound of fierce sobbing came from behind Korra, tearing her out of her thoughts. Even four years later, she still remembered that sound.

It was Bolin. Just days after Korra had agreed to go on a date with him, and had had a great time in the process, she'd had the bright idea to confess her feelings to Mako. And then when she found out Mako seemed to like her as well, she'd kissed him… in front of Bolin, as it turned out. She hadn't meant to do that, but she'd certainly made a mistake in not thinking about his feelings for her and playing things more carefully.

But they'd made up. She'd apologized, and Bolin had forgiven her. She didn't have to keep regretting this. And she certainly didn't need the spirit world digging up reminders of her past like this whenever she got a bit emotional. Now that she knew what was going on here, though, she could work past it. _Okay… I screwed up. I admit it. But I learned, I apologized, I was forgiven, and I'm trying to be better about that kind of thing now. All four of us - myself, Bolin, Mako, and Asami - we're all doing better than we were then. No need to linger on past mistakes, but it is fine to reflect on them and learn from them._

The rain stopped hitting her face. Smiling, Korra opened her eyes once more. The sky above her had cleared up, and she couldn't sense any other signs that the world around her was acting up.

Korra turned her head to see how close Asami was getting now. Apparently more time had passed than Korra had thought though, as Asami had already reached the base of the cliff. She'd paused on the way over toward Korra, though, and looked put-off by something. Korra privately cursed herself; Asami must have seen that reaction of the spirit world earlier.

"It's alright, Asami," Korra said, smiling at her friend. Judging by the expression on Asami's face, the truth was going to be needed here. Korra swallowed her nervousness and spoke. "The spirit world tends to be affected by my emotions. Avatar thing. And apparently just then it decided I needed to see a memory of Bolin. Nothing to worry about now; I've got it under control."

Asami glanced down at Korra. The explanation seemed to help a little, but she still seemed tense as she walked toward Korra. Once she reached Korra, she mouthed a word, her face inquisitive.

"Umm…" Korra said, shaking her head. She wasn't quite able to make it out.

Asami slowly mouthed the word again. Bolin. That was almost certainly what she was saying. No, not saying - asking.

"Yeah, Bolin…" Korra said. "You saw him, right? Or… at least, heard him? The sobbing sound?"

Asami shook her head slowly. She looked… well, she looked like Korra had felt when she'd initially seen Bolin on that night, four years ago.

* * *

><p>Asami tried to push the image she'd just seen out of her mind. She had to focus on the present. Korra was still lying down, so she still obviously needed help. She knelt down near Korra, and took her canteen from her hip and held it up to her friend.<p>

"Spirit water?" Korra said, glancing at the canteen. Asami nodded at this. "Okay," Korra said. She brought a hand up toward the canteen, then pulled it back, bending the water out from it. She drew it up toward her head, and wrapped the water around it in a circle. The water slowly filled with light, and Korra let out a deep sigh.

Asami smiled at her friend. She shifted closer to Korra and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her worry had never quite gone away until this moment. There was always the lingering thought in her mind that something might happen to Korra while she was away, or that the water wouldn't be enough to heal Korra's injuries. But from the expression on Korra's face now, it was clear that it had worked. Korra was as good as new.

With a half-grin and a grunt, Korra pushed herself up to a sitting position and bent the rest of the water back into Asami's canteen. "Perfect. You're really a life-saver, Asami," she said. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Asami shook her head, though she did smile at this compliment. Korra had saved her as well, so the thanks wasn't really necessary. Though she did return the sentiment that she didn't know what she'd do without Korra. She caught her friend's gaze and smiled softly at her, trying to get this emotion across. Judging by the smile on Korra's face, she seemed to get the message.

"Um…" Korra said after a bit. She glanced away from Asami as she continued. "I should probably let you know… I can't exactly remember what happened to me. Or to us. So, um… Sorry. If an apology is needed. If not, you can save that for later."

Asami blinked. She wanted to protest and say that Korra had nothing to apologize for, but she couldn't get that across easily. She shook her head and brought up a hand, waving it off. Perhaps Korra had gotten a bit overconfident earlier, but she was the one who'd gotten the worst of it. An apology really wasn't needed.

Asami blinked again. Korra's memory. She looked at her friend with concern, and pointed to her own head with raised eyebrows. That was the part they needed to worry about now, not whether Korra had anything to apologize for.

"Oh, um, it's alright," Korra said, shaking her head. "The Tree of Time was able to restore my memories before. I'm sure it can again. Besides, I'm sure you'll want to see it anyway, right?"

Asami wasn't quite as confident as Korra seemed to be, but she gave her friend a nod. Hopefully Korra wasn't missing any memories beyond this incident, in case this didn't work… especially if Korra thought she was still in a relationship with Mako again. That probably wasn't the case, though.

Korra nodded in turn at this. "Perfect," she said. She turned to the spirit who Asami had met earlier, when she and Korra had first arrived on this side of the spirit world. "So, Light," Korra said. "Do you know how we can get to the Tree of Time from here?"

The spirit nodded at Korra. "Of course," it said. "Want me to show you how to get there? It shouldn't take us long at all."

"Yeah. Probably best to do that right away," Korra said. She glanced over at Asami. "Um, you don't mind, do you? I just figure, it'll probably be easier to get my memories back the sooner we do this, so…"

Asami nodded. That made sense. Besides, she wanted to get this resolved as soon as possible as well, just so they had one fewer thing to worry about.

"Alright, perfect," Korra said. She began to push herself up, but then stopped. "Oh, wait. Duh. I forgot, sorry. I should introduce you two. Asami, this is Light. He helped me out back when I was off on my own in the Earth Kingdom and trying to figure things out. And Light, this is Asami. She's…" Korra paused for a moment and glanced over at Asami.

Asami's heart leaped up to her chest, wondering how Korra would describe their relationship. They hadn't really clarified things out loud between each other, though they both did seem to understand that it was more than simply a friendship. But would Korra be comfortable admitting that out loud? Seeing the nervousness in Korra's eyes, Asami reached out to her friend's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Korra caught Asami's gaze for a moment and gave her a smile. She turned back to Light and said, "She's a very special friend of mine, and we're waiting until she can get her voice back to work out the details of that friendship."

Asami smiled at this. She squeezed Korra's hand again to let her friend know that she liked that answer. Hopefully that wouldn't end up taking too long. Of course, if it did, there were other ways to make her intentions clear to Korra.

"I see," Light said. He turned to face Asami, and bowed his head. "Nice to meet you, Asami. Is there anything I can do to help get your voice back?"

Asami nodded at the spirit in greeting, then raised an eyebrow as she thought about his question. Maybe he knew something - perhaps about a spirit that could either cause this type of thing or cure it? She glanced over at Korra, hoping her friend would come to the same idea and ask this question.

"Um…" Korra said. She glanced at Asami, then at the spirit. "Maybe… You know more about the spirit world than I do. We don't really know what caused Asami to lose her voice - it just happened when she woke up. So… Well, if there's anything you know that might help…"

Light was silent for a minute. He sat back, and one of his leaf-ears twitched as he thought. "I don't think I've ever heard of any spirit taking someone's voice away," he said after a while. "Well, not just that. I guess Koh does steal your voice along with your face, but that's obviously not what happened here. But there's probably a spirit somewhere that can grant voices to humans. I just don't know who, or where they might be. Sorry…"

Korra smiled and shook her head. "It's alright. We'll keep asking around. Hopefully some spirit will know something." She reached out and gave the spirit a pat on his head. "Thanks, though."

Light looked up at Korra and smiled. After a moment, his body shimmered, and he transformed into a small white dog. Apparently he was quite enjoying Korra's pats. Asami found her heart warmed by this sight, and she moved over closer to Korra. She placed a hand on Korra's back and gently stroked it. She might not be able to speak, but that wasn't going to stop her from showing her affection.

"Oh, um, one more thing, before we head off," Korra said. "I'm just curious. Light, back when there was that raincloud, you say you saw a ripple in the air. Did you see anything after that? Or hear anything?" Asami's eyes widened a bit at this. Her hand, which had been stroking Korra's back, froze in place as Korra brought up this subject again.

"Nope," Light said, shaking his head a bit.

"Huh, okay," Korra said. She pursed her lips for a moment, and then glanced over at Asami. Her eyes showed just a hint of concern. "I, um… guess you probably saw something different from what I did then, eh Asami?" she said. "I'm… sorry about that. I guess it kind of happens here in the spirit world when I let my emotions get the better of me."

Asami tried to hold Korra's gaze. Her friend had picked up on the fact that that vision had been hard on her. But hearing Korra apologize about it… No. That didn't feel right. Asami closed her eyes and shook her head. Perhaps she needed to explain it all to Korra. But even if she were able to speak, she didn't know where she would have started.

Asami felt Korra's hand reach around her back, and she was soon pulled into an embrace with her friend. Korra rested her head on Asami's shoulder, and she squeezed in tightly with her arms. Slowly, Asami began to relax. Her own arms worked their way around Korra's back and held onto her friend. This was right.

And she would make other things right as well. When this vacation was over, she would at least make sure Izin knew it had worked out. It was the least she owed him, after what she'd done.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you all for reading, and thanks to everyone who's left a review on this fic!

Just so you know, the plan for this fic is to do two more "Books" of roughly the same length as the first (each with a slightly different tone and theme). So that means around 10 more chapters to go, though we'll see how things turn out.


	8. Weave of Memories

**Author's Note:** *collapses* Whew, I was worried for a bit I might not make this update in time, after squeezing in my Valentine's Day special (First Time You Loved Me - go check it out if haven't seen it yet) over the last couple weeks. But I made it! And now I can relax a bit.

* * *

><p><strong>Unspoken Words<strong>

**Book Two:** Question

**Chapter 2:** Weave of Memories

**Teaser: **Just what will resurface when Korra tries to recover lost memories?

* * *

><p><em><strong>9,881 years ago...<strong>_

The sun slips below the horizon, consumed by the forest in the distance. The trees cause the last rays of light from the sun to appear as beads along the horizon, winking away one by one. Does that forest have a name? The maps I saw earlier labeled it only as a forest, not at all notable to the generals discussing battle plans. I probably wouldn't be making note of it myself, if it weren't for the sun right now, and the lovely sunset it's gracing me with tonight.

"Beaded Woods." That's it. If it doesn't already have a name, that will be it. Assuming I live to tell someone of it. The forest deserves as much.

The last bead winks out of existence. The sun has set, but the night sky still holds on to the sun's rays, refusing to let go until the sun is too far out of reach. The watchtowers will light their braziers only when the night sky finally gives up on the sun, and the light from them will illuminate the environment even more than the sun's lingering rays do right now. And so - by no design of human, spirit, or nature, but simply by being passed over - twilight is when darkness has its greatest hold over us.

And now twilight is when I will dare approach the darkness. I didn't plan it this way, but the poetry in how it worked out is quite apparent. I close my eyes, letting my mind empty, letting my spirit be as free as the wind. Just for a moment, I let my spirit be as free as it was when I was a child, before I first heard from Wan, before I first learned of the power that lay within me and my ability to shape the world, before I realized how much responsibility came with this power, and before I became tethered to it. Especially now, on what may well be the darkest hour before the darkest day of my life, I will not deny myself this one indulgence.

After what might well be my one last moment of joy before I taint my soul, I let my spirit become tethered to the spirit world. I do not run from the darkness. I seek it out. Although I feared it as a child, Wan taught me that it is of no worry. It is unfortunate that it must be imprisoned in the Tree of Time, which binds the worlds of humans and spirits together, but some things cannot be changed.

My spirit finds itself at the base of the Tree of Time. I can sense the darkness contained within, but I can also sense a faint pulsing of energy. I know this energy is everywhere, but it is always too faint to perceive, except near this tree. It's no wonder that people used to meditate beneath this tree before the spirit world was closed off to them. The energy here would make it easy for even the least spiritual person to reach a meditative state.

I, the Avatar of Raava, can do even more. Even one step removed from my body, meditating at the base of this tree has always allowed me deep insight. I have never been left wanting for an answer when I come to seek it here, even if it isn't the answer I wished to receive. And so once more I sit at its base, closing my eyes, ignoring sounds in my ears, disconnecting my sense of touch, and freeing myself from the remainder of my senses one by one, until only the energy of the universe remains.

And when the energy is all I experience, I can perceive its true nature. The universe unfolds before me. Darkness surrounds me, but it's a beautiful darkness: The tapestry on which all of existence is drawn. The energy dances around me, sometimes taking form as a stray thought crosses my mind, sometimes appearing as blue streaks through the darkness, and sometimes stretching out as a tangled web in front of me.

I speak, letting my words shape the realm in which I find myself. Images appear as I speak, narrating my story for the benefit of whomever or whatever might be listening. "I come seeking wisdom. I am Varina, of the Air Tribe. When Wan, the Avatar of Raava, passed away, the dying embers of his life set flame to my own, and Raava was passed on to me. I follow in his path, but not in his methods. Wan failed to bring peace to the world, and I believe that this is because true peace cannot be a product of force.

"I cannot stop others from engaging in violence, but my whole life, I have foregone it myself. I have tried to lead by example, and many have followed. But now, my followers are seen as weak. They are seen as targets by the armies of Yang Li, who seek them out to steal their possessions, knowing they will face no retribution. If they had not gained the sympathies of the Bal Tuk tribe, who are willing to use violence to defend them, my people would have all perished many months ago.

"But the strength of the Bal Tuk is nearing its end. They can no longer hold out against the siege of their keep. And so, for their sympathies to us, they are likely to perish. I am forced to consider that I may have led my people down the wrong path. Although I believe even Yang Li's armies are deserving of life, when they refuse to grant that consideration to others, does it then become justified to use violence to defend oneself in turn? Even if it results in the taking of a life?

"I have discussed this at length with Wan. He counsels me to fight, but to attempt to avoid killing. Against such a large army, this may be impossible. If I fight, the Bal Tuk and I may win this battle. But it will almost certainly result in the deaths of many, no matter that I might try to avoid it. Such is the nature of violence, and such is why I abhor it. I cannot bear to bring an end to the life of another, but I cannot bear to let such noble people be brought to their own ends either.

"So I ask for wisdom. To anyone or anything that may be here. What should I do?"

The images narrating my words fade away, and I find a circular platform of white light appearing at my feet. Black fills the center of the platform, and white rays begin to shoot around it. After a moment of dancing, they trace the pattern of a sundial. A pale blue silhouette stretches out from me, appearing much like my shadow, aside from the color.

As I watch the silhouette of myself, words come from behind me. I turn, gazing upon a colossal red star in the sky above me, pulsing as it speaks. "Varina, Avatar of Raava, successor of Wan, second of the first cycle, first of Air. You are mistaken." Its voice was neither high- nor low-pitched, neither masculine nor feminine. I can't think of a single word to describe how it actually sounded, in fact. It was simply a voice.

"Mistaken?" I say, addressing the entity before me. Is it a spirit, perhaps? This deep in meditation, I'm unable to sense any spirits, so it's impossible for me to say. It probably is, but it's unlike any spirit I've encountered before. There's something much more primal about this entity. "In what am I mistaken?"

"You equate death with the end," the entity said. "Was Wan's death the end? Wan yet remains, as you well know. Raava remains as well. What has happened is that they have both changed. Raava brought with her a connection to Wan's experience, and Wan has changed in a way beyond the comprehension of humans, but you do know that in some way, his soul has given birth to yours. So why should you think death would be different for others? It is simply a change of state."

I shake my head. "It may well be. But it is an undesirable one. People would prefer to remain alive, to remain as they are, with those they love, and with those who love them. The change that death causes takes this all away."

The entity pulses in the sky. It is silent for a while, as if in thought. Eventually, it begins to speak again. "As you are incapable of understanding what happens in death, so too am I incapable of understanding why humans fear me so. Varina, Avatar of Raava, if you can understand nothing else, understand this: I am Time. I am Change. I am Death. In each moment, your past self dies so that your future self may live. As the army of Yang Li amasses outside the keep in which your body rests, they die each moment and are reborn. If you engage in battle, some will change in a different manner during this battle. If not, this change will come later.

"I am Death, destroyer of all. No matter your actions, all shall change, all shall die, and all shall change once more. You must choose for yourself what manner of change you wish to happen. Tomorrow I will slay the mortal bodies of hundreds of humans when they engage in battle. You must make the choice of who shall perish. Act, and the aggressors shall perish. Do nothing, and the defenders will perish. Do not fear this inevitable death. Use it to enact change. Use it to lead to the world you most desire."

A metallic sound rings out as the entity finishes speaking, accompanied by the entity's shape curling in upon itself. Though as its edges curl inward, its core expands, a yellow sun being birthed from within and pushing its way outward. The red edges pull at the sun, stretching it out, until it finally breaks free. With a blinding yellow light, the sun engulfs the realm, rending me from my meditative state and back into the human world.

* * *

><p>So why am I still here? I look around. Everything is just as it was moments ago. The entity, a furious red orb, hovers in the sky before me. Below me is a circular platform, with white lights tracing out the pattern of a sundial. But no… the sundial isn't just as it was before. The numbers on it have changed to some foreign script. My shadow is gone as well, replaced by three planks of pale blue light, each moving around the platform at different speeds.<p>

Odd, but not oddest thing I've experienced here. Perhaps the blast from the entity simply signaled its intention that it was through conversing, and it was time for me to leave. I turned back to the entity, giving it a polite nod. "I thank you for your wisdom," I say. My heart is heavy as I realize what I must do tomorrow. "If it is within your power, I humbly request that you grant those who may die tomorrow a pleasant passage into whatever may come next."

"Avatar," the entity says, "recall the words I spoke to you earlier. Your soul and the soul of Avatar Varina are tied together by the thread of causality. Your soul will not easily recognize that her memories are not your own, and that these events did not just occur. You must focus. To find your true self, answer this one question: Tell me one thing that happened to you more than a day prior."

I blink, narrowing my eyes at the entity. Its words feel true, but I also cannot shake the feeling that I am, and have been, Varina, Avatar of Raava. But for how long? Was I Varina a day prior? Let me see, then. If I go back in my memory, the most significant event was easy: when Asami joined me on a trip into the spirit world. Joined me: Avatar Korra.

Avatar Korra… who once more has at least one memory from a past life. I grin, looking up at the entity. "It worked!" I say, grinning at the entity above me. "I can't thank you enough! Are there any other memories from my past lives that I can get back as well?"

"It is possible that there are, particularly from the life of Avatar Varina. This was not the only time she meditated beneath the Tree of Time. But it is not safe for you to do so now. The more you experience Avatar Varina's memories, the more difficulty your soul will have telling them apart from your own. If you experience too much of her life, you may not be able to find your own memories again. And so I must counsel you to return only after much time has past, and you have gained many more memories of your own."

I let out a sigh. I hadn't actually been expecting this to work at all. So really, I was just grateful that I got anything out of it. I smiled and nodded at the entity. "Alright. I gotcha. Thanks," I say. "I owe you one."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Now…<strong>_

Korra could feel the pieces coming back into place. First, there was one large piece: Avatar Varina's memory inserted in with her own. Then, the memories she'd lost were filled in, one piece after another. Her decision to tunnel to the other side of the spirit world. Trying to impress Asami with an earthbent elevator. Forgetting about the fact that they were upside-down relative to the rest of the spirit world, so gravity would have to flip at some point. The inevitable chaos when gravity suddenly flipped on them, and Korra's panicked attempt to keep them from getting injured with her airbending, which hadn't quite been enough to prevent her from being knocked unconscious.

And then, a gap. Well, at least that gap wasn't surprising. She had been unconscious, after all. What was surprising was where it picked up. It wasn't with her in the Avatar State, getting them out of the elevator, as she'd guessed - and Asami had confirmed with a nod - had happened. No, the next memory was just before then. Even though she was unconscious when it had happened, she could remember Asami reaching out to her. Asami had been meditating, trying to reach Korra's spirit. And apparently she'd been successful.

But… how did Korra remember that? Then again, Avatar Varina's encounter with the entity in the Tree of Time was much the same. Korra had no direct connection to her past lives anymore, and yet she was able to connect to that memory, and remember it as if it were her own. Perhaps… was it Asami's memory she'd connected to? Asami had been meditating, reaching out desperately to Korra. Korra had been there physically. It might have been enough of a link to allow Korra to latch onto it when she was recovering memories, and bring it in as one of her own.

And if that was possible, then what else might be possible?

Korra let herself reconnect with the world, her lips curling up in a soft grin. She opened her eyes slowly, giving them a chance to adjust to the light. She focused on the blurry form in front of her, and her smile widened just a bit as the image came into focus. Asami was watching over her, with Light perched on her shoulder. "It worked," Korra said. "And then some."

Asami's eyebrows rose. She gave Korra a questioning gaze. Light did much the same, but he was also able to speak. "What do you mean?" he said.

Korra pushed herself up to her feet as she began to speak. Her muscles could use a stretch after meditating for this long. Probably. She wasn't quite sure how long it had been. "The tree was able to help me come back with a couple extra memories as well," she said.

* * *

><p>"That's amazing, Avatar Korra!" Light said once Korra had finished her explanation. Asami wasn't looking at him, but she could feel that he'd shifted into his puppy form again. "You really are an amazing Avatar!"<p>

Korra let out a chuckle and shook her head, though she smiled at the compliment. She reached forward and gave Light a pat on the head. "Couldn't have done it if you hadn't led us here. So thank you, Light. Oh, and thank you, Asami," Korra said, her gaze shifting to Asami. "I was only able to get that memory of when I was unconscious thanks to your efforts. And now that I know I can do that, maybe we can finally get some answers to why you can't speak."

Asami smiled slightly at Korra. Her friend's excitement seemed to have taken hold of her right now, but nervousness still had a grip on Asami. Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised at this. When she and Korra had touched the trees on the other side of the spirit world, they'd been able to see memories through each other's eyes. So Korra being able to do this wasn't really much of a surprise. But using this ability to find answers now was getting Asami a bit nervous.

"_I choose not to speak."_

Her voicelessness was most likely her own fault, having said those words to get out the dream she'd been trapped in. She'd have to show that memory to Korra. Admitting she'd made a mistake wasn't the part that was getting her nervous, though. She'd have to show Korra the context. The conversation surrounding it. It would make her feelings blatantly clear to Korra.

"Asami?" Korra said. Asami glanced up at her friend's face. Korra's smile had faded, replaced with concern. "Is everything alright?"

Asami gave Korra another weak smile. She pushed herself up to her feet, then reached out and took Korra's hands in her own. After taking a deep breath, she looked into her friend's eyes once more. Korra's affection for her was plain to see. And it was also obvious that she was getting better at reading Asami. Perhaps there wasn't anything in that dream that would be so bad for Korra to see after all. Perhaps there wasn't even anything Korra hadn't already figured out herself.

Asami smiled, genuinely now. She nodded at Korra. Everything was alright.

Korra returned Asami's smile. "Good. Um, so… do you want to try to figure out more now? We can come back here a bit later if you want…"

Asami shook her head, and she pointed down to the floor, trying to speak the word, "Now." There was no reason to delay this. As long as Korra was up to it. Asami chewed on her lip for a moment, then pointed at Korra and raised an eyebrow.

"Um... Sorry," Korra said, furrowing her brow. "Not sure I get it. Something about me?"

Asami pursed her lips, trying to think about how she could ask if Korra was up to doing this right now. Even if she still had her notepad, that wasn't something that was easy to draw a picture of. Asami pointed at Korra again, then gave a thumbs-up, then a thumbs-down, with a questioning expression all the while.

"I think she wants to know if you feel up to it," Light said. He leaped off of Asami's shoulder. He reverted to his normal form mid-air, his ears catching the air to keep him suspended, and now he hovered between Asami and Korra. Asami smiled and nodded at him.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine!" Korra said, glancing from Light to Asami, and giving Asami a grin. "Don't worry, Asami."

Asami eyed Korra for a moment. Knowing Korra, it was possible she was putting on a show of strength just to impress… No. Korra wouldn't do that now. Asami nodded at her. If Korra was good to go, then so was she.

"Alright. Um, sit down with me then," Korra said with a nod. "I think it'll help if we try to do this together." Korra didn't move to sit down just yet though. She pursed her lips together, something seemingly on her mind. "Oh, um, Light?" Korra said, turning to look at the spirit.

"Yes?" The spirit said, tilting his head.

"Well, I was um… going to ask if you'd watch over us," Korra said. She smiled a bit nervously at the spirit. "But it's really pretty safe here. And well, my stomach is starting to feel a bit empty, and there was that grove of fruit trees we passed on the way here, so…" Korra blinked. "I mean, I don't want to keep asking favors of you. If there's anything you need, just let me know, and I'll… what?"

Asami let out a chuckle as Korra suddenly cut off her rambling. Apparently she'd been caught in the act of adoring her friend. She gave Korra a wink, then mimed zipping her lips shut. This earned her an annoyed pout from Korra, though she could see laughter fighting against the pout on her friend's lips.

Light let out a laugh as well. "It's alright, Avatar," he said. "I told you, I'm happy to help." He flapped his leaf-ears, doing a flip in mid-air. "It might take me some time, though. I'll need to make a few trips, so I might only be able to get a few fruits for you by the time you're done."

"That's fine," Korra said, smiling at him. She reached out and patted his head. "Thanks, and wish us luck!"

"Okay, good luck, you two!" Light said. He flew up, pressing himself into Korra's hand for a moment, then twirled off, heading out of the Tree of Time.

Once Light was out of sight, Korra turned back to Asami. She reached out and took Asami's hand in hers again. "Okay," she said. She pressed her lips together and looked up into Asami's eyes. "Tell me the truth, Asami. Or um… nod or shake your head the truth. Are you sure you're comfortable letting me see your memories like this? If there's something… you might be uncomfortable with me learning like this, we don't have to do this. So, just shake your head now, and we'll just tell Light this didn't work, and find another way. I won't ask any questions. Nod, and we'll go ahead."

Asami didn't have to think about this. She simply nodded. She'd already decided this for herself, after all, even if Korra hadn't been privy to that decision. Seeing now that Korra had the same concerns, and had even gone so far as to come up with an excuse to get them some time alone so she could voice them, just solidified Asami's decision that she could trust Korra. There were certainly some memories that it would be awkward if Korra were to see them, but… it would be worth it. If she could have her voice back, and be able to explain it all, and finally confess her feelings to Korra, it would be worth it.

"Alright," Korra said, grinning at Asami. "Um, as I said before, let's sit down, do this together."

Asami nodded once more. She followed Korra's lead, and sat cross-legged in front of her friend. She was expecting Korra to take her standard meditative pose, but instead Korra reached her hands out to Asami. Raising an eyebrow, Asami placed her hands in Korra's.

"This will help keep us connected," Korra said, in response to Asami's quizzical gaze.

Asami had a feeling that Korra was probably making this up as she went along, but she wasn't going to argue. Well, she wouldn't have done so even if she could have. Korra had a good track record for improvisation, after all.

"Okay, close your eyes," Korra said. "Try to empty your mind, and just feel the energy of the universe, which this tree helps connect us to. I'll do the hard part. You can just try to guide me. Focus on the question of why this happened, of why you can't speak now."

Asami nodded, and she closed her eyes. She'd been able to get somewhere with meditation before, though it had taken her some time. This time, though, it seemed to come much easier. Almost as soon as she'd closed her eyes, she could feel her mind wanting to empty out. The tree made it easier somehow. It gave her mind room to expand. And so she let go, hanging on to just the question "Why?"

* * *

><p>Meditating here was easy. Korra was able to connect to the universe's energy within moments of closing her eyes. The problem was, there was so much of it. She needed to find the right path. She needed to connect with Asami, to enter her friend's memories.<p>

Korra soon found herself suspended in space again. There wasn't any platform beneath her this time, however. Rather, she was surrounded by a web of glowing white threads. Out of curiosity, she reached out and pinched one of the threads. An image flashed in her mind: Naga roaring at Tahno, scaring him off from when he was trying to provoke Korra. So these threads were probably all connected to her memories then. That wasn't the one she wanted, though.

Another thread. The first time Korra managed to heal someone with her waterbending. Another. Korra hung over the southern spirit portal, entering the Avatar state in order to open it. Another! ...Nothing. The thread resisted Korra's attempts to grab onto it. Clearing her mind, Korra let herself slip into the Avatar state for just a moment, giving her the power she needed to push through and take hold of that thread. Her arm shot outward, lightning extending from the tips of her fingers.

Korra pulled her hand back. No, she hadn't just done that. But she'd never lightningbent before. Had she just seen into her own future? She shook her head. Maybe. That wasn't what she was here for, and it could cause more trouble that it was worth if she learned too much about it, anyway. She needed to figure out a way to connect with Asami, and she wasn't getting anywhere randomly pulling at threads.

Focus. One moment. Korra held Asami's face in her mind, trying to focus on a key moment with her friend. Something powerful enough she could use as a bridge. The spirit portal. Looking into Asami's eyes as they crossed over. That was it. When Korra saw something in Asami's eyes… when she saw Asami looking back at her, with the same gaze. That moment. She would always remember that moment. She could find it from anywhere.

A golden glow appeared off to Korra's left. Smiling, she reached outward, taking the glowing thread in her hand. The memory filled her mind, but Korra didn't let it pass. She let it envelop her. She fell into the memory, reliving it once more, reaching out to Asami with all her heart.

_It was simple. I saw my future in her eyes._

Korra felt Asami tug on her hand, and she was suddenly falling. Asami disappeared, as did the golden glow around them. Only Korra remained, finding herself on the other side of the spirit portal, falling slowly toward the ground.

No, not alone. She faced her reflection. She wasn't sure quite what was reflecting her image back, though. Or was it anything at all? Was it just her mind showing her what her subconscious thought she needed to see right now? As she came to this realization, the reflection faded away, revealing the person behind it: Kuvira.

The world blinked. For a moment, Asami caught a glimpse of Izin where Kuvira had been. His eyes fell closed, and his head bowed down. The world blinked again.

"What happened?" Kuvira said. Her eyes hadn't quite reconnected with the world yet. They slowly managed to focus on Korra as she spoke. "Are we… dead?"

Korra knew the words. But they weren't what she spoke. Instead, the voice of Avatar Varina came from her lips. "Dead? You die every moment. But right now, more than most. It's time for you to die, Kuvira, and be reborn. I can't promise the rest of the world will let you have much of a life, but perhaps it can at least be a more noble one from now forward, even if you can only exercise that nobility by accepting your punishment."

The world blinked.

Izin shook his head. Wait… was this Izin? No, Asami didn't know his name yet. The man shook his head. "It won't be enough. It's never enough." He closed his eyes again. "But it's something. At least it's the right thing, this time."

Asami narrowed her gaze, tensing up just a bit. "'Enough'... You sound like you want to atone for something. Did you… do something to hurt Korra?"

The man shook his head again. "No. Maybe I even helped her, in a way. But it wasn't for her sake. I need to do something to atone because… I hated the Avatar. I hated the concept of her. That she could get so much power, while others had none…" He opened his eyes, turning slowly to face Asami. "I hated her for something she had no control over… but she's the last person to deserve such hate.

"I was wrong. Her powers don't define her. Her choices do. She chose to sacrifice everything, time and time again. Maybe I didn't harm her. But I'm still going to try to make up for it, somehow. You have my word on that."

_Asami?_ A voice deep within Asami's mind spoke out. _Why are we here? Who is this?_

_That's… not going to be easy to answer,_ part of Asami replied. Dread began to fill the back of her mind. She'd been pushing this away, but she had to be here for a reason. _I think he might be part of the reason I can't speak now._ Even now, Korra probably couldn't hear those thoughts. Maybe Asami could find a way to show her, though.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thanks for reading, everyone! Don't worry, answers will come eventually. ;)


	9. Change of Heart

**Unspoken Words**

**Book Two:** Question

**Chapter 3:** Change of Heart

**Teaser:** Korra dives into Asami's memories, searching for a reason why Asami's lost her voice. But why are they so far in the past?

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sixteen months ago, Asami Sato's memories…<strong>_

Why?

Asami stared at the letter. She recognized her father's handwriting easily, but he'd made sure she would know it was from him anyway by adding his name to the return address. For once, he was being upfront with her about something. It was far too late for that, though.

Why had he sent this letter, though? It was a question Asami could probably answer simply by opening and reading it, but curiosity wasn't worth opening up a wound that was still healing. For all she knew, her father had decided it was time to try to convince her of his Equalist ideals once more, or perhaps he had something even worse to say.

No. It wasn't worth it. Asami shook her head. She picked up the letter from her desk, and headed to her filing cabinet. She found an unused file near the back and tucked it in, not even bothering to label it. She put it away: out of sight, out of mind. Except, not entirely out of mind.

Asami placed the palm of her hand against the wall. She closed her eyes as she leaned over, letting out a sigh. If only Korra were here. She could really use someone to talk to right now. Without Korra around, there really wasn't anyone she felt comfortable opening up to. At least, not as much. She was beginning to get a bit more comfortable with Opal, ever since she'd agreed to help Asami with testing her idea for a suit that airbenders could use for flight, but Asami still didn't feel comfortable going to her for something like this.

Asami shook her head. She needed Korra. If Korra couldn't be here in person, then she'd go with the next best thing.

* * *

><p>Sometimes in her life, Asami didn't know what was driving her until events had fully played out. The renovations of Republic City Park were such an occasion. When the contract had come up for bids, Cabbage Corp had bid for it at a rate that they must have thought Future Industries couldn't hope to match. Indeed, they couldn't. No matter how Asami worked the numbers, there was no way they could have turned a profit at that rate. And yet, she'd gone and underbid Cabbage Corp anyway, and they'd done the renovations at a loss.<p>

She'd told her shareholders to trust her. She had a plan to use it for goodwill. As it turned out, she did. She just didn't realize until she was laying out the plans for the park that the goodwill she'd had in mind wasn't for Future Industries; it was for Korra. There was a space in the park allocated for a "monument," without any specifics defined in the contract. It was only when Asami had gotten to this part of the planning that she'd realized what her subconscious had been helping her work towards.

It was beyond time for the people of the people of Republic City to appreciate all that Korra had done for them. And so Asami had laid out the plans for a monument to Korra, reminding the city of the Avatar who'd saved them three times over, being prepared to give up every part of herself to do so. Just in case anyone didn't get the message, she'd made sure to have the base of the statue inscribed, paying tribute to Korra's victories over Amon, Unalaq, and the Red Lotus, and thanking her for what she'd had to suffer through each time.

Asami had erected the statue for the Korra, and for the people of Republic City. At least, so she told herself. Perhaps she'd done it for herself, too. Right now, when she found herself with a Korra-shaped hole in her heart, she found herself gravitating to this statue. Simply seeing it helped put her mind at ease, just a little. Whatever Korra was doing right now, Asami knew she was working to get better, so she could eventually return to Republic City and look over them, just like this stone version of her did.

Some time here would do Asami good. She wandered around the park for a bit, never straying too far from the statue. Eventually, she ended up taking a seat on a stone bench not far from it. She leaned back, trying to clear her mind of the letter from earlier.

The park was rather busy today, although at least Asami was spared anyone recognizing her today. The statue of Korra even seemed to be attracting a fair bit of attention. It wasn't often Asami got a chance to gauge just how much of an effect it might actually be having on people, so she decided to make the most of this opportunity. It would be a good distraction, if nothing else.

Asami looked around, taking note of people who passed by the statue. A group of people were lined up on a series of mats near the statue, practicing what could have been earthbending stances, though none of them were paying any attention to the statue itself. What looked like a mother and daughter came up to the statue and looked up, though it wasn't long before the daughter ran off and the mother followed. A couple of young kids climbed on the base of the statue, though they didn't seem to care much about the fact that it was of Korra. A man came by walking his ferret-dog, and the ferret-dog seemed to show a fair bit of interest in the statue. Something told Asami it wasn't really appreciating it, though.

It took a while before Asami noticed anyone reading the inscriptions on the base of the statue. A man, probably just a couple years her senior, dressed in red and black clothing, had approached the statue, and was staring intently at one of the inscriptions on its base. Asami was pretty sure she'd seen him earlier, sitting on another bench nearby. The statue must have piqued his curiosity.

Asami smiled a bit as she watched the man. After a minute, he moved from one inscription to another. So people were indeed reading what she'd had written about Korra. Good. Maybe it would only affect a few people directly, but hopefully their improved opinion of her would trickle out to the rest of Republic City over time.

The man moved to the final inscription, and after a few more minutes, he walked back to the bench he'd been at earlier. Asami tried to keep her eyes focused in front of her so he wouldn't notice he was watching her, though she still paid attention to him. He didn't seem to sit down at that bench, though. Instead, he moved off. After a moment, Asami leaned back so that she could catch sight of him again.

Something was off about the way he was walking. He was heading away now, so Asami could be a bit more daring with looking over at him. Yes, something was definitely off. If she had to describe it, she'd go with… "shaken." He was shaken. A moment of worry hit Asami. Had she made some mistake with the inscriptions? Had they been vandalised, perhaps?

Asami got up, dashing over to the statue of Korra. She circled the statue once, inspecting each inscription in turn. Nothing was amiss. Perhaps she hadn't thought through how this might affect people, then. She'd have to talk to that man, figure out what it was that had shaken him about this.

Asami looked up, trying to catch sight of him again. Unfortunately, he'd gone out of sight while she was inspecting the statue. With a sigh, Asami ran back to the bench he'd been at before, taking a moment to look around. He'd been heading away from her, so that would have taken him toward the grove of trees nearby. That was probably it. That could have taken him out of her sight, so he could easily be there now.

Walking quickly, but not so quickly that it might appear suspicious to him, Asami headed toward the grove. She slowed down a bit as she reached the trees, and she was soon able to pick out some footprints that looked recent. Following them, she soon caught sight of a red sleeve, just beyond the base of a tree.

Stepping slowly, Asami moved until the man was in full view. Apparently he was even more shaken than he'd let on when he was in public. He was sitting on the ground at the base of the tree, his face buried in his hands. Asami couldn't help but wince at the sight of this. She didn't know what had caused this, but part of her felt responsible. And as awkward as the situation was, she couldn't walk away.

He hadn't noticed her yet, so Asami spent a moment trying to find the right words. In the end, she decided to keep it simple. "Excuse me," she said, trying to keep her voice soft. "Is everything alright?"

The man was silent for a moment. He seemed to tense up just a bit. "I'm fine," he said eventually, though he didn't look up. His voice was stiff. It was an obvious lie. "Don't worry about me." He was probably hoping Asami would just move on, and leave him until he recovered. The alternative would probably mean opening himself up to a complete stranger.

But he'd come here alone. And he'd let himself get this broken up before heading off home, or to see anyone else. Perhaps he didn't have anyone else he could open up to. Or maybe that was just Asami projecting her own situation onto him. Well, it was still possible. Korra certainly wouldn't give up on someone who needed help like this, and neither would Asami.

Asami took a seat beside from the man. "And what if I decide to worry about you?" she said. "Can I do that?"

The man took a breath. "Fine," he said. After a minute, he adjusted his position. He rested his forehead against his arms, still hiding his face from Asami. "Can't really… explain very well right now…"

"It's alright," Asami said. "I can wait." She'd taken the rest of the day off from work, in case she needed it to deal with her father's letter. Well, at least this had pushed that out of her mind.

It took a few minutes, but eventually, the man looked up. He leaned his head back against the tree behind him, giving Asami her first clear view of his face. In a way, he reminded her of Bolin. He had a similar build, though he was a few years older, and his hair was a few inches longer and a fair bit less groomed.

His eyes were where he differed most from Bolin, though perhaps part of that was just situational. Even though he was looking away from Asami right now, she could see the pain in his eyes, and the evidence that he'd likely been crying recently. There was something a bit odd about his eyes, though Asami couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. They seemed unusually sharp, his gaze and emotions almost too easy to read. But again, perhaps that was the situation, and how strong his

After a few more moments, the man spoke. "I can't help but hate myself right now," he said. "Maybe I can blame my father for some of it, but…" he shook his head. "I have to take responsibility at some point. Now's as good a time as any. I blinded myself, and I could have ended up doing some horrible… well, no, not 'doing'... aiding? Enabling? Enabling. I could have enabled some horrible things if things had played out just a bit differently. Or maybe not. I don't know. But I deserve hate for it anyway. And the worst part is, if what those inscriptions say is true… if the Avatar knew me, she probably wouldn't even hate me."

Asami looked at the man, wondering what he might have been involved in. In Republic City over his lifetime, it could really have been anything. A lot of good people had gotten tangled up in bad things just to survive - Mako and Bolin came to mind. They'd been involved with the Triple Threats in order to survive on the streets, but they'd moved beyond it. Whatever this man had been involved in, perhaps it wasn't too late for him either. That is, assuming he was genuine, and that he wasn't leaving anything out right now.

Right now, Asami decided she'd give him the benefit of the doubt. "You're right," she said. "Hate isn't her way. She might have come close to hating Amon, but that wasn't what drove her to oppose him." Asami paused for a moment. Going on along these lines probably wouldn't help. He didn't need to hear about how Korra would have no reason to wish him ill. She needed to get him out of his own past. "Hate doesn't have to be your way, either. There's always time to make a change moving forward. We can't change the past. We simply have to accept it, and try to move on. If you feel you need to, then you can try to do better things in the future to make up for anything you think you've done wrong in the past… especially if there's anyone you actually have harmed."

"I can, but… The Avatar..." The man let out a deep sigh. "I have to do something. I _will_ do something. Even if I never meet her, I will. But…" He shook his head. "It won't be enough. It's never enough." He closed his eyes again. "But it's something. At least it's the right thing, this time."

Asami narrowed her gaze, tensing up just a bit. Mentioning the Avatar in this context, after she'd mentioned the possibility that there might be someone he'd actually harmed… "'Enough'... You sound like you want to atone for something. Did you… do something to hurt Korra?" That might be harder for her to forgive personally, if that was the case. She might be able to, but it was certainly going to be harder for him.

The man shook his head again. "No. Maybe I even helped her, in a way. But it wasn't for her sake. I need to do something to atone because… I hated the Avatar. I hated the concept of her. That she could get so much power, while others had none…" He opened his eyes, turning slowly to face Asami. His gaze didn't quite meet hers; it fell just below Asami's eyes. "I hated her for something she had no control over… but she's the last person to deserve such hate.

"I was wrong. Her powers don't define her. Her choices do. She chose to sacrifice everything, time and time again. Maybe I didn't harm her. But I'm still going to try to make up for it, somehow. You have my word on that." The man's eyes shifted up as he said this, finally meeting Asami's gaze. His eyes seemed to lock firmly onto Asami's. There was no way he wasn't telling the truth.

"I'll take your word," Asami said. She smiled slightly at the man. She held her hand out to him. "Though I'll be able to hold you to it better if I have your name."

The man's expression seemed to relax, just a little, as he reached out and took Asami's hand. "Izin O-," he said, though he cut himself off. He shook his head slightly before he continued, "Just Izin. No family name. Not anymore." Asami raised an eyebrow at this, but she didn't inquire further. His past was his own business. If he wanted to put it behind him, she wasn't going to push him for details.

"Asami Sato," she said in reply, widening her smile. "It's nice to meet you, Izin."

Izin's expression shifted as she spoke her name, recognition spreading through his features. "'Sato'... You're…"

Asami was about to cut him off and tell him not to worry about that, but the hairs on the back of her neck had stood up for some reason. She was sensing danger. She glanced at Izin first, but there was nothing in his posture to indicate he was in any way a threat to her. And his eyes were almost apologetic right now. So, no, not him. Something else… she could hear something, but just barely. A yell. A man with a deep voice, perhaps calling out for help, perhaps trying to warn people.

"Later!" Asami said sharply, quickly pulling back from Izin and standing up. A scream came behind her, and she turned around. She strained her ears to hear more, but she was only able to make out one word: "airbender." Whatever was going on, it was serious. "I'll handle this. Sorry, Izin," Asami said, glancing back at the man just before she dashed off in the direction of the scream.

* * *

><p>The world slows down around me. Instead of the trees moving past me as I dash off toward the cry for help, they slowly spread into a blur. The brown from their trunks, the green of their leaves, and blue of the sky behind them all blend together. Patches of the scene mix together, like different colors of paint mixing on a canvas. Eventually, it all comes to a halt, and I take a step out of Asami's body.<p>

"Alright, I think I get it now," I say, turning back toward Asami.

Asami is frozen in place mid-stride, though not blurred-out like the surroundings. I give her a moment to respond, but I see nothing obvious from her. I can feel something, though. We're still connected. I've simply stepped outside for a moment, so I can express my own thoughts without being overwhelmed by her memories. Perhaps if there's some way she can respond, she'll do so. But for now, I'll simply speak my own piece to her.

"This is… an entry point," I say. "A way to let me in to your memories. I was expecting to see a memory I was in… perhaps when you were meditating back in the elevator underground and were trying to reach out to me. But maybe this makes more sense. My mind was brought back to how I felt reaching out to Kuvira, showing her compassion, and trying to help her move forward as a new person. And then you brought me over to a significant point in your life, when you did the same for someone else."

I take a moment to look around the scene, considering it. Maybe the details are different in the two memories, and maybe Izin's crimes were more in his head than anywhere else, but the core theme seems to be the same. Death of the old self, and birth of the new. Wait… was this why I saw that particular memory of Avatar Varina's, even? Maybe the entity in the tree knew I was going to try this, and so it chose that memory to show me.

I turn back to Asami and nod slowly, then smile at her. Nothing changes in her body physically, but somehow I know she's watching me, listening to me. "Um… one more thing, before I forget. I probably should thank you for what you've done here. I didn't realize you'd been doing so much for me while I was away. And… I'm also sorry I couldn't have been here for you when you needed me. I know! I know what you'd say: I don't need to apologize for anything. But I feel like it, okay? I'm sorry, Asami. I won't leave you for that long again. I promise."

Warmth fills the air around me as I speak these words. I close my eyes, letting the warmth envelop me. It seems Asami can respond after all. Perfect.

"Alright, Asami," I say, smiling in response to her ethereal embrace. "You know better than I do what might be relevant. Show me where - or when - we should go next."

Around me, the blurred-out trees begin to sharpen once more. Asami's body begins to move, resuming her run. This memory again? Was there something else here that was relevant? I don't have much time to think about it, though. The world is about to snap back into focus, and I can't risk losing contact with Asami. I reach out to Asami, wrapping my hand around her wrist, and I let go of myself. My body fades into a mist, and my consciousness seeps into Asami's mind, taking a backseat. As always, I'll trust her to drive me where I need to go.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sixteen months ago, Future Industries R&amp;D Facility, Republic City...<strong>_

"What do you mean Miss Sato isn't in?" Bumi said, gazing at the secretary in disbelief. "She said today was finally going to be the day I got to try out one of those wingsuits Opal's been raving about!"

"Er… I'm sorry, Admir- I mean, Mr. Bumi, er, sir…" the secretary said, stammering. Bumi almost felt sorry for the poor man. Almost. "Miss Sato had a personal emergency come up, and she had to cancel all her engagements this afternoon. We tried to get in contact with you, but…"

"Cancel? Doesn't she know how to delegate her duties?" Bumi said. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot as loudly as he could, looking around the foyer. This was turning into a waste of a day. Maybe it wasn't a waste yet, though.

"Well, she does, sir, it's just, this is one of her personal projects, and she insisted that she be there personally…"

Bumi's head snapped back, his eyes focusing on the secretary. "Well, she was the one who decided not to be there! Her decision - not mine!" Bumi leaned forward, placing his palms on the desk and bringing his face to within inches of the secretary's. "So here's what we're going to do: You're going to show me where the suit is she was going to let me use, and I'm going to test it out. As you said, she decided not to be here, so she's changed her mind about being here personally, right?"

"Er, well…" The secretary said, nervously trying to back away from Bumi.

"Hey," Bumi said. He cocked a confident grin, then pulled back and crossed his arms. "Trust me on this. I'll take full responsibility if something goes wrong."

The secretary gulped. "Um, let me call up one of the engineers…" he said, his hand reaching out blindly for his phone. "Just to… make sure everything's ready for your test."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sixteen months ago, Asami Sato's memories…<strong>_

The yelling became more clear as Asami cleared the trees. A woman was running through the park, warning about a falling airbender who was headed toward the area. Most people were packing up and running away as they heard this, out of a very legitimate concern of not being hit in a crash landing, though a few seemed to be trying to spot the airbender before they did so. At least they were getting away eventually, though. That was probably the smart move: get themselves out of danger if they couldn't do anything to help.

When Asami had been a child, she'd had that same instinct in the face of danger, but it had been trained out of her. A lifetime of self-defense courses had taught her to face danger head-on, and so she found herself running toward the source of danger now, looking for a way to help. The job of warning people was already being handled by the woman running through the park - apparently she was the same sort as Asami, and she ran toward danger as well, either by natural instinct or through her own training.

So, spreading the warning was being taken care of. That left Asami with the task of finding a way to save the airbender. She didn't have much time, so she had couldn't waste a moment. If they were falling, then their flight stick must have been damaged, and there must not be any other airbenders around who could help support them. Depending on how bad the damage was, they might be able to slow their fall somewhat, but it might not be enough to save them.

There were two options: Slow their descent, or cushion their landing. If there was time, try to do both. For the landing, there was a pond nearby. It wasn't very deep, but it might be something. "Waterbender!" Asami called out, almost before her mind had fully processed her idea. She looked at the people milling around and running past. "Is anyone around a waterbender?" Asami turned her head quickly, looking for any indication that someone might be. Nothing. If there were an airbender here, they would have been able to help already. A firebender was no good. "...Earthbender? What about an earthbender?"

"Um…" Asami's head turned, and she caught sight of a girl running by, slowing in her step. "I… well…" she said, coming to a stop.

"You can do this," Asami said, nodding at the girl. The girl seemed to be a couple years younger than Asami, so she might well be inexperienced or untrained. But it was an emergency, so Asami wasn't going to express her worries. She had to pass on her confidence to the girl. "Here's the plan. We need to figure out where the airbender is going to crash, and then you can earthbend a pile of soil, dirt, any soft earth you can find nearby, for them to crash into. Alright?"

The girl took a breath. "Okay. I can do that," she said.

Asami smiled at her. She reached out and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, then looked up into the sky, trying to see if she could spot the airbender. That was one half of the plan, done as best as she could. Was there any way she could help slow the airbender's descent? If she could get airborne herself, there were ways, but that wasn't going to happen soon enough. If a trained metalbender were around, they might be able to help out when the airbender was close enough, grabbing onto them and pushing back during the end of their descent. But if there were any nearby, they would have responded when Asami asked for an earthbender. What did that leave?

A flash of light came from Asami's left. She turned her head, catching sight of someone firebending, shooting blasts of fire at… blankets? She caught sight of the airbender in the sky, above the firebender, closer to the ground than she was comfortable with, and with that realization, figuring out what the firebender was up to took a backseat to getting to the airbender in time. "Come!" she said the the earthbending girl as she ran off toward the firebender.

As Asami ran toward him, she caught sight of the firebender shooting a series of blasts at one of the blankets, pushing it up into the air. It wasn't catching fire, thankfully; it might have been one of the mats being used earlier by the people practicing earthbending forms - Asami was pretty sure they always used nonflammable mats. Just as Asami reached the firebender, she caught sight of the airbender - now clearly a rather large one - grabbing hold of the airborne mat with one hand and pulling it toward himself.

"It'll help," came a man's voice from Asami's left side. "But not enough. Someone grab on to this, anchor yourself if you can!"

Asami's body moved ahead of her conscious mind. She noticed a mat held out before, and she grabbed on to the end of it. "Earthbender, anchor my feet to the ground!" she said, hoping the girl had managed to keep up with her.

Time seemed to slow, giving Asami a chance to notice everything at once. To her right, a massive airbender was headed almost directly towards her. To her left, the firebender she'd noticed earlier was waving at the airbender, directing him toward the mat Asami was helping hold up as he got out of the way himself. Behind Asami, the girl she'd met earlier caught up with her, and she felt earth grow out, enveloping her feet. She held on to the mat as firmly as she could, refusing to let go. It might well be the airbender's lifeline.

Asami's eyes rose, finally catching sight of the man holding onto the other end of the mat: Izin. Apparently he'd also been cursed with the instinct to run toward danger. And he didn't have the benefit of an earthbender to anchor him down right now. From his sentence earlier, it was possible he had something of his own to hold him down, but from the way he seemed to be lifting off the ground now…

Like a rubber band which had been stretched out, time seemed to suddenly snap back to full speed. The wind lifted Izin off the ground, pulling him and his end of the mat up just as the airbender crashed into the middle of it. Asami somehow managed to maintain her grip on the mat, though Izin wasn't so lucky. At some point in the chaos, he got flung loose, hitting the ground just a moment after the airbender did and rolling a good ways away before he came to a stop.

Asami tried to move her feet, but they were still anchored down. She glanced to the firebender off to her left and spoke, "Try to find a healer. Tell people we need help here!" The firebender nodded, and he quickly ran off.

A moment later, Asami felt the earth around her feet open up. "Are they… are they alright?" the earthbending girl asked from behind her.

A groan came from the ground in front of Asami. A moment later, a gruff voice spoke. "...Would it be the wrong time to say that I think your wingsuit design still needs a little work?"

Asami grit her teeth. That answered one question. Well, more than one question. "Yes. Yes it would," she said. She stepped over Bumi, deciding it was best to ignore him for now. She could deal with his idiocy later. After a couple steps, Asami turned back to the girl and said, "Watch over him. Try not to let him doing anything stupid. Anything else stupid, that is."

* * *

><p>The world begins to break apart. I feel a rift opening beneath my feet, and I instinctively hop over to the side, leaving Asami's body once more in the process. As I look back, Asami's body is wiped away by the shifting scene, only to appear up ahead, kneeling over Izin. The breaks in the world seem to be radiating out from her new position, though they soon fade away. A series of dark blue lines cutting through the ground are all that remains of this transition.<p>

The lines focus on Asami, but I hardly need them to know that she's what matters here. I step toward her, looking down at her and Izin. I kneel beside Asami, trying to see if the man is okay. Time is frozen again, though, which makes it hard to tell. If this were anything but a memory, I'd be using my waterbending right now to try and heal him. But there's not really anything I can do except watch and hope for the best.

The world begins to move around me again. Just as before, slices split apart, wiping away the scene and shifting us to the future. In a matter of moments, I find myself in a frozen scene in a medical facility, with Izin being tended to by a waterbender and Asami watching over him. I let out a sigh of relief. He's alive, at least.

Though, as I see that he's alright, something begins to bother me. For the moment when I'd worried that he might have died here, I could understand why Asami was showing me the rest of this scene. But if he was alright, then it wasn't quite as clear why this memory was relevant. There had to be something I was missing here.

"Asami?" I say, pushing myself up to my feet and looking over at her still form. "Mind cluing me in a bit? Why are you showing this to me? What does it have to do with you losing your voice?"

Asami's body doesn't move, though my eye catches sight of a screen appearing in mid-air across from me. I move around Asami to see the screen better, and I catch a series of images appearing on it. No sound comes out from it, but I get the idea from the scenes: Asami, Izin, Opal, and Bumi discussing something in a warehouse, with Asami looking quite angry with Bumi. Asami working on her electrified glove - the new model, the one I saw her use after I returned from my recovery. Opal testing out a wingsuit under Asami's supervision, telling her something which seems to be making Asami a bit flustered. Izin waiting at a table in a fancy restaurant. Asami sits down across from him, and they begin to talk.

A date? They went on a date? I blink, my heart catching in my chest. But… maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions. Something in Izin's expression doesn't look right. He nods slowly, then Asami reaches out her hand to take his. She gives it a squeeze, then gets up. Without even eating dinner, she leaves him.

As soon as Asami turns her back on Izin, the scene freezes, and the screen shatters. The pieces of it fall to the floor one by one. The final piece suspended in the air shows only Asami's lips. Unlike the other pieces, it doesn't fall to the ground. It remains suspended for another moment, and then folds in on itself.

"So… Something that happened with Izin…" I say. I feel like perhaps I should smile at the revelation - a little "aha!" moment - but my expression seems to be fixed firmly in neutral. After a while, I close my eyes, drop my head, and let out a sigh. "Damn it, Asami," I say, wishing she could simply explain. Something about the scene was pulling out my own emotions, but it isn't worth fighting it. "I wish I could hear your voice again. Not just in a memory. Not just from within your own head."

Part of me was hoping this might prompt a miracle to occur, but no sound was coming. After a moment, though, I do hear steps approaching me from behind. A smile slowly tugs at my lips, just before I feel Asami's arms wrap around me. I find myself leaning back, pressing myself against Asami's body. With a couple more deep breaths, I manage to center myself.

"Alright, Asami," I say. "What's next?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> For those wondering, the story's around halfway through right now. Thanks for everyone following along. I hope you enjoy. Please do drop a review if you have any comments, compliments, criticism, or random poetry for me! ;)


	10. Mark of Humanity

**Unspoken Words**

**Book Two:** Question

**Chapter 4: **Mark of Humanity

**Teaser:** Asami learns more about Izin's past, and Korra discovers a possible clue to Asami's loss of speech.

* * *

><p>Light came to a landing in the tree, placing the piece of fruit he'd picked down amongst the others. It was getting to be quite the pile now. His plan had been to continue to pick fruit until he came back and found that the Avatar and her friend had finished their meditation, but he already had a pretty good meal here for them. This would probably be enough.<p>

Shifting into the white puppy form that the Avatar seemed to adore so much, Light walked over to the two of them and sat down near their legs. He spent a moment looking at each of their faces in turn, wondering how they were doing. In meditation like this, no emotions showed through at all, so it was probably useless to try to glean anything from their expressions.

After a minute of watching over them, Light felt the instincts of the form he'd taken on begin to pull at him. Deciding not to resist, he hopped up onto Korra's lap, lay down, and curled up. He made sure he had a good view of the entrance to the tree, just in case anyone else came by. If this was going to take a while, he might as well get comfortable. Thankfully, the Avatar's lap was quite good for that.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Sixteen months ago, Asami Sato's memories…<strong>_

_Dear Korra,_

_It's taken some time, but I think the people of Republic City are starting to realize just all that you've done for them. I talked to a couple people today, just to take a not-quite-random sample, and you came off quite positively in both of their eyes. I'll make sure to keep spreading the word. You can trust that I won't rest until your approval rating in Republic City is higher than mine._

_Um… Not that I'm bragging about the recent 86% rating I got from my shareholders. I'm just saying: 87% is our target for you._

_Unfortunately, while my wingsuit design is working great for Opal, Bumi's first test flight was… Well, let's just say it was unauthorized and he's lucky to be alive. I'll chew him out once he's fully recovered._

_I really do miss you, Korra. I just don't have any friends as close as you here, though at least Opal and I are beginning to get a bit closer. Perhaps I'll be able to make some other friends as well. You'd better come back soon though, if you don't want someone to overtake you as my best friend! ...Heh, as if I'd actually let that happen. Just say the word Korra, and I'll come running for you - even after all this time, you still come first for me._

_I hope everything is going alright for you at the South Pole. If it isn't, you can let me know, okay?_

_Sincerely,_

_Asami Sato_

Asami let out a sigh. For some reason, this letter was a bit harder to write than the last one. Usually this came easily to her. But right now, she found herself watching her words, trying to make sure she didn't accidentally slip up and say something that might sound like she was guilting Korra into replying. Perhaps the time apart was getting to her. She didn't want to drift apart from Korra, but her friend's silence was more worrying with every passing month.

She would keep writing though. If it wasn't helping, Korra could just ignore her letters. If it was, then Korra would have her letters to read. She would bear that weight for Korra. That was the promise she'd made to herself, and she intended to keep it. It was just that… perhaps it might be a bit better for her own sanity if she stopped expecting a reply. Maybe that was the right lesson here.

Maybe. She wasn't ready to give up quite yet, though. With a nod, Asami folded up the letter she'd written. It was about time for her meeting.

* * *

><p>"How familiar are you with how the Equalists' electrified gloves worked?" Izin asked. Despite the fact that he'd come into the meeting room with a briefcase, he hardly looked professional. Part of it was that his left arm was in a cast, but there was also the fact that his hair seemed to be even wilder than Bumi's normally was. As Asami pondered this, Izin lifted up his briefcase and placed it on the conference table. After opening the combination lock on it, he pulled out a binder of notes.<p>

"Intimately, I'd say," Asami replied. "I've kept one around for self-defense, and I've had to repair it on more than one occasion. So I know how they work." She approached the table, watching as Izin opened up his binder. She had to admit, this wasn't at all what she was expecting when Izin had asked to meet with her, saying he had something for her. She'd already rehearsed a way to delicately evade his advances without hurting his feelings if he turned up with a bouquet of flowers or box of chocolates as thanks for talking to him earlier when he was down. She hadn't rehearsed what to say if he came with a locked briefcase full of notes.

"Okay, so we can skip the basics," Izin said. "What I wanted to talk to you about is that type of capacitor it uses. It's sub-optimal by design - by my design." Izin focused his gaze on the notes in front of him, and he took a deep breath. "I've got everything you need here to optimize it - along with the capacitors used in the radios you produce, which suffer from the same flaw. It's yours. I did the work while under the pay of Future Industries, so by all rights, you own it."

"Hold on," Asami said. She was still trying to adjust to what was going on here, and she wasn't sure she'd heard all of that correctly. She placed the palm of her hand on the table and turned to face Izin. "You worked for Future Industries?"

Izin turned to her. "...Yes," he said, with a stiff nod. "Up until a couple years ago, with the rebellion." His eyes didn't quite meet Asami's gaze, but they were still quite easy to read. There was definitely something awkward there.

"Alright," Asami said with a nod. So, back when her father ran the company, then. For a moment, she pondered whether or not she wanted to get more into the details behind this. She glanced over at the notes Izin had laid out on the desk. Sub-optimal by design, he'd said. Eventually, Asami let out a sigh. "...Okay, tell me the whole story."

Beside her, Asami heard Izin take a deep breath. "The whole story? That… could take a while."

Asami shook her head, and she waved a hand at him. "I'll clear my schedule if I have to."

* * *

><p>I pull away. The scene isn't pausing on its own like before, but once I start to pull myself out from Asami, the world does seem to grind to an awkward halt around us. I step away from Asami's body, taking a moment to center myself and remember who I am.<p>

After a moment of concentrating on myself, I turn back to Asami and say, "Sorry Asami. I just need to make sure I don't get too lost in your memories. When I was in Avatar Varina's memories earlier, I actually thought I was her for a bit after coming out of them. It's a bit easier here, since you aren't a past life of mine like she was, but it's still a good idea to play it safe."

Plus, this gives me a good opportunity to reflect on what I'd seen, and try to piece together some of the clues I'd gotten so far. I'm going to get more on Izin's story soon enough, so there isn't much point speculating on that. No, what I'm curious about is what he meant to Asami. There was one moment where I thought I felt something from her. Just when she'd realized he hadn't come to see her with romantic intentions, there was something almost like disappointment in the back of her mind.

Asami was planning to turn him down, but she was disappointed for a moment that he didn't ask. Logically, it didn't make much sense. But logic wasn't behind it. I let out a sigh. I find myself turning away from Asami, pacing for a few moments. Maybe it was indeed a date I'd seen her go on with Izin in the vision before. It didn't look like it had gotten past the starting line, though. And she'd never mentioned him in any of her letters, or since I'd gotten back.

If Asami is showing me these memories, she must think they have something to do with why she's lost her voice. I have no idea how, though. But still, it's worth seeing it through. The part that worries me is what Asami might end up feeling. I don't exactly relish the thought of living through Asami developing feelings for a guy, and then the possible heartbreak of however it ends. I do owe it to her, though. For one thing, there was that memory of me kissing Mako I'd accidentally dragged her into. That had to have been far more awkward for her than this would be for me.

With that in mind, I nod. I turn back to Asami. "Alright," I say. "I'll trust that you know what you're showing me here, and that this is important. Just understand, this is a bit awkward for me, so I may need to pull out again."

The world around me slowly begins to move again. Taking the hint, I step back toward Asami. I reach my hand out to her, once more joining her for the ride.

* * *

><p>Izin took a sip of his tea. "Mm… thanks, that helps," he said. He gave Asami an awkward smile. He'd protested when she'd offered to get him some tea, but he'd eventually given in. Apparently he wasn't very used to speaking for long periods like this, as it hadn't taken very long before Asami could hear his voice beginning to get a bit scratchy.<p>

"It's no problem," Asami said. She took a seat across from Izin, and put her own teacup down on the table between them. "Let me take a guess at where this is going: Your father exiled you because you weren't a bender, and you come to Republic City in search of a new life. You end up working for my father, who at the time was running a massive secret supply operation for the Equalists. With your revelation today that-" Asami cut herself off. Just for a moment, she'd seen a flash of distress in Izin's eyes. She wasn't quite sure what had caused it, but it was probably better that she stop talking. "Well, never mind. I'll let you tell the story," she said, trying not to let on that she'd spotted anything amiss.

"Alright," Izin said. He took a breath, possibly to steady himself, and then he resumed his story. "I got a job in research here, but I ended up rather bored with it. I started to work on other ideas of mine in my spare time, sounding off ideas against other people there on occasion. I ended up with a string of four papers that I managed to get published the third year I was working here; they caused a bit of a thing.

"Your father got interested in my paper on generating electricity from light, and before I knew it, I was in his office, being given a big speech about pulling oneself up from nowhere to achieve greatness with a kind benefactor. I was pretty sure he was going to offer me a promotion – and he did – but that only came after he did some subtle digging about my politics. I ended up over-sharing with him, not really knowing anything about the Equalists myself, and before I knew it, I was in deep with them."

Asami nodded. It wasn't hard to see that coming, after he'd brought up his involvement with the Equalist gloves earlier. She took a sip of her tea as she waited for him to continue, but he seemed to have stopped for now. "Well, from what you tell me of your history, I suppose I can't really blame you for being sympathetic to their cause… at least at that point," Asami said. She held her tongue on trying to convince him away from them; she wasn't sure how necessary that would be now. From her experience with him before, how he definitely seemed to regret his past, and the fact that he'd now told her he'd done something to ensure the Equalist gloves were sub-optimal, it was likely he'd already started walking away from them on his own. She was still a bit wary, just in case there was something bad she hadn't heard yet, though at this point she wasn't really expecting something like that to come up.

"At that point," Izin repeated. His gaze turned downward. "And right up until two years ago. The Revelation." Izin paused. His fingers played with the rim of his teacup for a few seconds. "...I know you were at the heart of the counter-revolution," he said at last, "but did you ever see it in person? When Amon took someone's bending away?"

"...Just once," Asami said. "Tahno, in the pro-bending arena." Even two years later, it was hard to get that image out of her mind. "I was seated in the VIP section when Amon did it. I can still remember the way Tahno pled with him." Asami found her own gaze dropping down as she spoke, and her own fingers began to play with her teacup. "I can't pretend Tahno was a nice person, but he never deserved anything like that. In one moment, I saw him stripped of the skill he'd spent his life refining, which he made his living off of. When he collapsed… I have to admit, for a moment, it felt like he'd been killed."

"A public 'execution.' Just to make a point. Tahno was just the poor soul chosen as a sacrifice," Izin said, his voice heavy. "Us Equalists got our own public execution to show off Amon's power a bit earlier: Lightning Bolt Zolt, the leader of the Triple Threats. A man with far fewer redeeming qualities than Tahno, but also one who defined himself around his bending. If I'd had the heart of a true Equalist, I'd have cheered at seeing him stripped of it. But I was horrified."

Asami looked back up at Izin. His gaze was still buried in his tea, though his eyes reflected memories of that night. She knew that Korra had witnessed the Revelation as well, though she'd never talked about it with her. She must have been horrified in much the same way when she'd seen it. And yet, she'd fought back, knowing the risk she was taking. Even when the worst had happened to her, and she actually did lose her bending, Korra hadn't given up, and so she'd managed to win in the end.

Asami grinned slightly at this memory. Even at a distance, perhaps Korra could spread a bit more inspiration. From what she'd seen of Izin before, he might still need a confidence booster, and a better way to reframe his view of the world. "But you didn't give in to fear, did you? You did something to fight back in your own way, with the gloves. Perhaps it even helped turned the tide against the Equalists. What was it you did, exactly?"

"In short? I lied my ass off," Izin said, cracking a half grin. His eyes glanced back up at Asami. "I was in charge of finding ways to improve the capacitors used in the Equalists gloves, to make them more compact with the same capacitance. I could do the math on my own, though. Either this would cut costs and make gloves more lightweight and easier to wield, or it would let them pile more capacitors onto a single glove, making it possible to deliver a fatal shock.

"Neither was something I wanted to let happen. After seeing what Amon was willing to do, I knew an Equalist victory would just be leading us into tyranny. We might be on top in the new regime, but it wasn't a price worth paying. And so I worked overtime, making it look like I was trying everything possible to help out, when I was actually spending the extra time rerunning any experiment that showed positive results so that I could sabotage the second run and make it look like a failure. In the end, with the hours I was working, Mr. Sato just thought I was working myself to death to find a solution for him, and he never suspected I was working against him the whole time."

"You went through all that?" Asami said. "I'm surprised you didn't simply quit, so they couldn't benefit from you."

Izin shook his head. "No. The stuff I was working on was easy. Anyone in my position could have run the same tests. They might have been a bit less efficient at it, or tried a few different things, but they would have been able to help. Staying where I was was the only way." Izin leaned back in his chair. After a moment, he let out a sigh. "Anyway, you have the real results now. I… guess I really have no good excuse for not coming clean right after the revolution. I just wanted nothing more to do with Future Industries.

"But I guess even that wasn't to be. The universe doesn't play dice with us," Izin's gaze finally met Asami's again. A quiet confidence had reappeared in his expression. It was the same confidence she'd seen briefly when he was helping save Bumi. "There was a reason I was born a nonbender to a family of firebenders. I'm starting to figure out what that one is. And there was a reason I was in Avatar Korra Park the same day you were, and I'm not talking about the simple fact that I was waiting for a date who never showed up. I may not know what that reason is yet, but I'm going to make it a good one.

"So," Izin raised his teacup up. His eyes met Asami's, a strange expression in his gaze. "I want to thank you, Miss Sato. The universe may not bring us together again, but once has been enough for a lifetime. It's been a pleasure meeting you. I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me." Izin brought his teacup back to his mouth, finishing it off. He placed it back down on the table in front of him, and moved to get up.

"Wait. One moment," Asami said, standing up. She gave Izin a smile, trying to pull him back into the conversation before he ran off. "If you'd like to come back to work for Future Industries, I'm sure we could find a suitable job for you." As she spoke, Asami strolled toward the door, making sure Izin couldn't easily get to it without moving around her. She wasn't blocking him from leaving; she was simply trying to discourage it.

"That's alright," Izin said, shaking his head. He stood up, though he didn't move to leave quite yet. "I've got a good job at the patent office. It pays enough, the hours are good, and I've finally got enough free time on the job to figure out a problem that's been nagging at me."

Asami was about to raise her offer, but that might be getting a bit too blatant. Instead, she simply smiled. The patent office. She could work with that. "Alright. In that case, I'll wish you the best of luck with solving this problem of yours."

Izin returned her smile. "Thank you, Miss Sato," he said.

"Asami."

Izin let out a brief chuckle. He stepped toward her and reached out his hand. Asami took it, returning his handshake. "Thank you, Asami," he said.

After Izin departed, Asami returned to her office. She headed to her desk and sat down behind it, letting out a sigh. It was probably time to get back to work now. She reached down to pull her out her schedule for the day to see if there was anything planned soon that she had to worry about. As she pulled it out though, her eyes fell upon a folded letter in front of her.

Korra.

Asami reached for the letter. It was alright, she hadn't-

* * *

><p>An explosion of blue filled the world. I feel myself moving, though I have no idea in which direction. Unlike the previous times I was pulled out of Asami's memories, there isn't even a single moment in which I still wonder if I might be her. I'm the Avatar Korra, and I'm being forcibly ejected.<p>

"Asami!" I cry out, reaching forward, though I don't even know if forward is the right direction - all I can see is blue, all around me. This can't be what she wants, can it? "Are you there? Give me a sign if you can hear me - anything!"

* * *

><p>-actually done anything with Izin. She hadn't invited him on a date. She might have briefly felt something, and she might not have closed the door on any possibility with him, as perhaps she should have, but she'd done nothing wrong. There was no reason for Asami to feel guilty.<p>

* * *

><p>Black lines shoot through the space around me. It's a bit too delayed to be a response from Asami, but it must still mean something. One line traces out a small circle around my feet, and then another traces a triangle around it. A second circle is traced out, surrounding the triangle and touching its tips, and when it completes, the line begins to trace out small triangles around its edge. I count them up as they're formed - any small piece of information might be useful here - counting sixteen in total before the line returns to its origin.<p>

The blue outside the pattern breaks away, replaced with black, and the circle beneath my feet tints white. Something tells me I should recognize this pattern. I've seen it before, somewhere, but I can't pull up the memory. Was it in a past life? Is that why I can't recall it?

Maybe it's just a memory of a memory, but I might still be able to get something. There's no time to waste if I want to get back to help out Asami, and so I sit down, assuming my meditative pose. In her memory, Avatar Varina was able to meditate even when she was already projecting herself into the spirit world. Perhaps I could do the same here, and meditate to find this answer somewhere inside of me. I press my fists together, close my eyes, and let me mind drift wherever it might need to go.

* * *

><p>It wasn't even as if she and Korra were actually in a relationship of any sort. She had no idea if Korra returned her feelings, or if she even could. It was easily possible that Korra simply wasn't interested in women. It would probably be easier for Asami to brace for that possibility, so that it didn't catch her off-guard again, like it had with Kei-Lin so many years ago. That revelation had shattered Asami, and she couldn't bear to let that happen with Korra.<p>

Asami let out a groan, and she leaned back in her chair. Logically, she had nothing to feel guilty about. That didn't stop her from feeling guilty, however. "I suppose I'm in too deep…" she muttered to herself, shaking her head. Well, her heart was set. At least an unrequited love for the Avatar was far from the least productive emotion she could be feeling. She just had to be ready to accept that it might never be returned.

* * *

><p>Blue fills my vision. I can feel chi moving upward through my body, concentrating in the back of my throat. The blue coalesces into a shape around me, reminding me of the outermost petals of a lotus flower. Inside the petals, a symbol is etched: a downward-pointing triangle surrounding the full moon. A symbol of truth.<p>

Wan's voice pierces through the darkness. "You have now unblocked the chakras of earth, water, fire, and air, Vrihnu," he says, "the four elements. These chakras are present in all living creatures. It is the final three chakras that are unique to humans, and so they are the most difficult to unblock. But I have faith in you. I was able to do this, and so I trust that you will be able to do so as well.

"Of the final three chakras, the first is the sound chakra. This chakra deals with truth, and it is what gives humans their voices, to allow them to share truths of the world with one another. It is blocked by lies, but most greatly by the lies we tell ourselves. In order to unblock it, you must find this lie, and you must admit the truth to yourself."

A lie to myself. Even as I begin to consider this, the world around me begins to shake. I consider exiting meditation this moment; if I'm lying to myself, I have a very good reason for it. But if I give up now, I'll be sealing off my access to Raava's power. Perhaps it is a sacrifice I can make, though.

But it is not a sacrifice worthy of the Avatar of Raava. It would be a selfish sacrifice. I must speak my truth, even if it leads Wan to abandon me. I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what I must do. "Wan," I say. "Moments ago, you addressed me as 'Vrihnu.' The name my parents gave me at birth. When they saw me, they saw someone befitting of that name. But they did not look inside my soul. You've seen inside my soul, Wan, more than anyone else, but still you only see Vrihnu.

"The truth is, Wan, we are both lying to ourselves. My soul was born from yours, into the body of a boy. This is what everyone saw. But this is not the truth. My body may never represent my truth, but I can admit it to myself, and I can let my name represent it. …'Varina.' Woman, in all but body. That is the truth."

As if water bursting through a dam, the blue light around me explodes upward. My chi is released, free to flow through the fifth chakra. There's no going back. Even if Wan cannot accept it, I do not regret this admission. The flowing energy is all the proof I need that I'm finally telling myself the truth at long last.

Moments pass by, without word from Wan, but at last, he speaks. "Well done. You have opened the sound chakra, Varina." Even though I cannot see him, I can sense the smile in his voice.

* * *

><p>The world flickers around me, but the scene doesn't shift as I expect it to. "Wan?" I say. I give it a minute, but no response is forthcoming. Perhaps this is something I need to do on my own, then. This might be some form of test that I must pass in order to unlock the sixth chakra.<p>

Perhaps, though… just one moment to relax. The final two chakras can hardly be more significant than this one to me. The road ahead may be difficult, and I don't know how many people will accept me as I am, but I would rather fail to convince people of the truth than convince them of a lie.

Alright. I should move on. I'll proceed on the assumption that I must figure this next chakra out on my own. Wan told me that the final three chakras are unique to humans, and are the most difficult to unblock. The difficulty would fit in with having to do this one on my own. Perhaps I must discern what else is unique to humans, in order to identify this chakra and unblock it.

Communication was first. Perhaps wisdom? Culture? Art? No, culture and art are too constructed; they aren't innate. Culture comes down to communication, art to creativity or inspiration. If the next chakra is creativity, then having to find my own solution to unblock it would make sense. So, what blocks creativity? Complacency perhaps. An unwillingness to explore that which is new.

And at this moment, being complacent is exactly what I've been doing. I haven't moved on to the next chakra; I've been waiting patiently at the last one. I stand up, then tilt my head back and look upwards. Each chakra was higher in my body than the last, so I should rise up to find the next. I reach my hand up to the sky, willing myself to rise to the next chakra, to open it up and allow my chi to flow further.

I begin to rise, but something is weighing me down. I look downward, trying to discern what it is. I see nothing but the sound chakra beneath me, and it continues to shrink as I pull away from it. Yet something still pulls me back. Only when the chakra has shrunk to the size of my fist does the force pulling me back take form. A red haze coalesces in the darkness behind the chakra. The haze slowly takes the form of a human body, and the chakra moves to its proper place in the throat.

Images flash in the background of the body and quickly shatter. The first two are gone almost too quickly for my mind to take in; all I can see is a boy and a girl in the first, and two girls in the second. The energy flowing through the chakra pulses with the appearance of each image, and the hazy figure winces as if in pain as each image shatters.

The third and fourth images show a young woman and man. The young woman looks familiar to me. I've seen her before. Asami Sato. I don't know how I know her, but I know her. And the young man she's with is named Mako. She speaks to him. The energy flows through the chakra. The image shatters, and the figure winces. The fourth image repeats this cycle, and once more I see the pattern of energy flowing through the sound chakra, followed by pain in the hazy figure.

Another image appears: Asami is with a brown-skinned woman of about her age, someone else familiar to me - perhaps even more familiar than Asami. At the sight of this woman, I feel something trying to draw me out of myself and into her, but I resist it. I finally made my claim to being Varina, and I'm not going to give it up so easily. Even if it means having the body of a woman, this woman isn't me. I won't lose myself to her.

After a moment, the threat of losing myself passes, and I look back at the hazy figure. The energy flowing through the chakra is restrained, and I never see the pulse of energy like before. Nor do I see the image shatter. Instead, it pulls away, until it's enveloped by the darkness and can no longer be seen.

The scene is stable for a long while. I realize that I never actually stopped trying to ascend away from this, and so I stop myself. Whatever is going on here, it must mean something, even if I don't understand it quite yet.

At last, another image appears, showing Asami a few years older, looking hesitantly at a man dressed in red and black, with piercing eyes. Her energy is still hesitant, and once more the image begins to move away. I see a sudden burst of energy flow through the chakra before the image has departed. Almost immediately, the image shatters, and the figure doubles over in pain. From where the image was, I see a pale red ghost of the man Asami was with in it. He too is in pain, even worse than that of the hazy red figure below me.

But from somewhere, an image of the brown-skinned woman from before has reappeared. Slowly, the pain is eased, and the figure relaxes. Her sound chakra is blocking much of the energy trying to flow through it, though. No pulse of energy, but no images shattering, and no pain.

"I choose not to speak," comes a voice echoing through the darkness. Asami. It's Asami's voice.

Something about the sound of her voice resonates in my mind. It's been so long since I've heard it. The sound of it was exactly what I needed right now to remind myself of what I came here for. I'm here to help Asami find her voice once more. But who am I? I'm the Avatar. This is beyond doubt - but which Avatar? Not Vrihnu… but not Varina either. I used to be her, in some sense at least, and her identity was real. I don't have to throw it away. I can let it be part of my own truth.

But right now, I'm Korra, and my friend needs my help. I flip my body, extending my hands toward the red figure and dive toward it. Hopefully it's not too late to get back to Asami's memories, to see the rest of the story she's trying to tell me.

I still have no idea what we might be able to do to help Asami, but at least now I've got an idea where the problem is. "Trust me, Asami," I say just before I reach the hazy red figure, hoping she might be able to hear me, if my instincts are right and this is indeed her. "We'll figure this out."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Whew! Another long chapter, but perhaps this one actually answered more questions than it raised, for once. Hope you all enjoyed, and I'd love it if you'd drop a review and let me know what you think!


End file.
